


Dark Knights in Gotham City

by The_Howling_of_Drogons_Pit



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Blood, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Mystery, Supernatural Elements, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-04
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2018-07-12 04:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 49,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7085113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Howling_of_Drogons_Pit/pseuds/The_Howling_of_Drogons_Pit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A new student is coming to Gotham Academy – someone who goes by the name of Nico di Angelo. He seemed like just your average 13 year old with minor anti-social problems, that is, until an unfortunate run-in with a monster had Dick Grayson think otherwise. Starts off like your average high-school story fanfic, but will turn into something else as the story progresses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Time set: A month after Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, before Heroes of Olympus, after Episode 17 of Season 1 of YJ (Disordered), before Episode 18 (Secrets).
> 
> Disclaimer: I do no own the Percy Jackson series or Young Justice.
> 
> Please note: Demigods know about superheroes (duh, they're all over the news) but superheroes don't know about demigods, save for Wonder Woman.
> 
> Italics outside of quotation marks by itself = thoughts
> 
> I dedicate this story to my best friend, Alyce Lonsdale. Maybe one day she'll read it xP

"You want me to what?!" yelled Nico di Angelo in frustration with a hint of anger.

"You heard me," stated Hades calmly as he smoothed out his elegant robes.

"Okay, fine. I have no problem with going on a mission for five months, but you want me to go to school during the mission? Are you kidding me?" said Nico, exasperated.

"I don't kid," stated Hades with a stoic face. "Trust me, son, this wasn’t my idea."

Nico's expression changed in an instant, however, before he could voice his confusion, black smoke suddenly exploded in the middle of the throne room.

"Lady Hecate," exclaimed Nico in surprise as the goddess was revealed as the smoke cleared.

The goddess of magic nodded in reply, and that was when Nico noticed the black duffel bag in her hands.

"I'm sure your father has told you about going on a mission, and he is correct – the mission you're going on is for me," she said.

"…couldn't you just get someone like Percy to go? He's more experienced...he's older and he's actually been to school before," said Nico after a pause.

"No, because the son of Poseidon is not suitable for the job," she stated dryly.

Nico frowned. Not suitable for the job? How? Percy could practically do anything.

"I want you to embark on this solo mission to Gotham City, where several disciples of mine have reported illegal acts of necromancy taking place within the city," explained Hecate.

Hades rolled his eyes at his son’s blank look, "Someone has been raising people from the dead using forced magic. It hasn't been working very well, as the soul that the person had tried to summon barely took form before it came back to the Underworld."

"So you want me to find this person, and bring him down or something?" asked Nico.

Hades stepped forward and handed Nico his skull ring.

"Your sword and your ring has been merged together, and it will work like the sea spawn’s pen. A different key of Hades has been implanted into your sword. I want you to cut the person; one cut will kill him, yes. But his soul would then be transported straight to me, where he will stand trial against the judges of the Underworld and I," said Hades.

Nico nodded obediently.

"And what if those mortals with the costumes – like the bat dude or whatever his name was – comes and gets in my way? Doesn't he like, guard the city or something?" asked Nico.

"I wouldn't want to meet some unnecessary souls, but do what you must if they become a problem," stated Hades.

"All right, the mission sounds fine to me, but I'm just wondering…why the heck do I have to go to school?"

Hecate sighed.

"Because, as you said, Gotham City has been heavily patrolled and guarded by mortal 'superheroes', it would seem suspicious for a 13 year old to be wandering around the streets during the day, and forced necromancy magic only works at night."

Before Hecate could continue however, a loud beeping sound was heard, and said goddess exhaled in weariness.

"I apologise, but I have a meeting with Zeus to attend to. I must go at once, but I'm sure you can figure the rest of the mission out."

Hecate then handed the duffel bag to Nico, before the same heavy black smoke that signalled her arrival appeared once more.

"Good luck, son of Hades,"

* * *

 

Dick Grayson slid smoothly out of the back of the sleek silver Porshe at the entrance to Gotham Academy, Barbara Gordon following behind him; it was a regular occurrence for them to car-pool when Commissioner Gordon was busy.

“Thanks Al,” said Dick as Alfred handed him his backpack.

“Have a good day, Master Dick. Same to you, Miss Barbara.” He said with a nod, and with that, the man stepped on the gas petal and was off.

“So, did you hear about the new student?” said Dick casually as the pair headed towards their lockers.

“New student? Since when?”

“Since, like, Saturday. Bruce had offered another ‘lucky’ student a full scholarship to Gotham Academy,” stated Dick with a shake of his head, “Don’t understand why though…”

“But, school started like a month ago, why didn’t he give it out then?” she wondered.

Dick shrugged.

“Yeah, well, I also heard from Bruce that he’s gonna be joining my year.”

Barbara, being just a few weeks older than the age cut-off to Dick’s year was in the year above, which meant that she was a 9th grader while Dick was still an 8th.

“A scholarship so early?” she wondered again, getting a slight bit suspicious. Dick noticed and chuckled.

“Babs, why are you suspicious? He’s just a student.”

“Still…” she said, but decided it was pointless to dwell on it as she shut her locker and had her books for the first two lessons in hand.

Dick had also shut his locker, but it wasn’t long before a group of bulky seniors slouched passed. One had stuck his hand out intentionally and knocked all the books out of Dick’s hand.

“Aw, look at that. Little Grayson was too weak to even carry his own books around! Do you need your girlfriend to help you out there?” sneered one while the rest of them sniggered.

“Girlfriend? Pfft, probs’ stuck in the friendzone like a loser!” The group roared with laughter as the others students stopped to watch.

Dick balled his hands to fists, but couldn’t do much as he had to play his part as ‘Richard Grayson, the adopted son of billionaire play-boy Bruce Wayne’. Sure, Robin the Boy Wonder could easy take them down, but Dick Grayson, the weak and skinny spoilt thirteen-year old shouldn’t even know how to throw a punch properly.

“Oh! You wanna fight me? Grayson? Ha! Grayson and fighting just really shouldn’t go in the same sentence,” sneered the leader, Dylan, as he noticed the younger boy’s clenched fists.

“Leave him alone,” said Barbara, a glare menacing enough to match the Bat-glare.

“Or what? I can, if you give me a favour in return, doll face,” said Dylan menacingly, his lips curling into a disgusting leer as he eyed her blouse. Barbara abruptly took a step back as she crossed her arms over her chest, and Dick was at a point of anger where he seriously contemplated the consequences of blowing his cover, when everyone around the vicinity froze at the sound of a new-comer’s voice.

“Hey! How about you take your fuck-buddies somewhere else? The sexual tension between you guys are really getting on my nerves,”

Dylan froze, his hand that had slowly made its way around the collar of Dick’s school stilled abruply.

“What did you say?” he hissed, turning around slowly.

“I said, go pick on someone your own size, or are you deaf _and_ stupid?”

Dick peered over Dylan’s shoulder, and was slightly surprised to see a student standing several metres from them.

The boy had jet-black hair, but it was jelled back and pressed down, a bit like Dick’s hair. His Gotham Academy uniform looked new but rumpled and he shouldered a black backpack; his skin seemed impossibly pale, but there was a tint of olive-skin tone as well. But the thing that stood out the most, were his eyes. They were obsidian-black and seemed to belong to someone far too old for the boy’s age. He had wide shoulders, but his uniform and thin fingers told Dick that this boy was probably skinny and shouldn’t have taken on a senior.

At the sight of the boy, Dylan threw his head back and laughed, his herd of ‘friends’ laughing along with him.

“Wow, two nerds in one day? I must be a lucky man!”

“You call yourself a dude? With hair like that?” said the boy with a smirk, and Dylan’s face turned red with indignation.

Dick was abruptly dropped to the ground as the senior turned around to face the newcomer fully, and without warning, lunged for him. Dick winced as he prepared himself to hear a crack of bones as the boy would’ve been crushed by the 200 pound senior, but his eyes widened in genuine surprise when the boy rolled to the side seconds before the collision, and balled his hands into fists in a boxing stance. Dylan turned with a growl, his arms coming out at lightning speed as he aimed for the boy’s face, but said teen deflected the hit and released a jab of his own. The single punch slammed into Dylan’s jaw, and the resulting crack echoed throughout the courtyard. The older teen fell backwards onto the lawn with a thrud, and the other students watched in awed silence and surprise at the turn of events.

Then, the boy merely turned and picked up his backpack, before disappearing into the crowd of students. The teacher arrived moments later, demanding to know what had happened.

“Uh, I fell and hit my jaw.” stated Dylan, for he wasn’t the most favourable student amongst the teachers, and even _he_ was smart enough to know that telling the teacher about the boy would merely raise more questions, and Dylan was certain the teacher wouldn’t believe him if he said the boy randomly punched him.

The teacher rolled his eyes, but sent him off towards the nurses’ office to get it iced.

“That was...”

“…interesting,” said Dick as both his and Barbara’s eyes were stilled glued to the spot where the meanest bully of Gotham Academy was taken down with a single punch, by a boy five years his junior.

Not that Dick was…impressed or anything.

The bell for homeroom suddenly rang out loud and clear, and the students snapped out of their daze and began to rush to their homeroom.

“See you at break,” said Barbara quickly, before she hurried to her class and Dick did the same.

As he settled in his usual seat at the back of the room next to the window, Dick noticed that the seat next to him was empty, and the usual person who sat next to him was moved to the front of the room. Everyone chatted with their desk partners animatedly before the teacher came, but it wasn’t long before Ms. Bailey strolled into the room, and the class was silenced.

“Class, I’d like to introduce to you our newest member to our school, we are fortunate enough to have him in our class.” she stated.

The students barely paid her any attention, the chatter repeatedly going back to the spectacle in the courtyard moments before. However, it wasn’t long before a familiar-looking boy with jet-black hair and pale-olive skin stumbled through the door, and all talking within the classroom suddenly ceased.

“Sorry, I got lost.”

“That’s alright. Class, meet Nico di Angelo.”


	2. Chapter 2

Nico's expression seemed dead when the teacher introduced him, and handed him a timetable. Ms. Bailey then told Nico to sit down on a free seat, and there was only 2 left in the class. One was amongst a group of snobby looking girls, while the other was next to Dick. Nico took one look at the seat amongst the girls, and made a decision to sit in the back of the room next to Dick.

"So you're Nico…" said Dick with a nod.

Nico said nothing as he sat down quietly, but he gave a slight nod in response. Dick frowned, did Nico recognise him? Surely, he should know that he was the son of Bruce Wayne, or that he was the boy he had supposedly saved this morning. As Ms. Bailey blabbed on about the upcoming events, only the students who cared listened, which happened to be pretty much no one.

"You know who I am?" said Dick finally.

Nico looked up from his timetable and raised an eyebrow.

"Am I supposed to?" he asked.

Dick got the vibe that Nico didn't like talking to people very much.

"Well, I am Dick Grayson."

Dick didn't mean to sound snobby or anything, but his image as a rich kid kind of meant that he had to. Nico stared at him for a few moments, before he turned back down to his timetable, uninterested.

"Cool." Was all he said, before he then squinted at the words on the cursed piece of paper in front of him that was written in english.

"You saved me this morning." Stated Dick, taking note of how Nico seemed to have trouble with reading his timetable.

"Oh. That was you? The one with the red-head?" he asked.

Dick nodded, and Nico sighed heavily before he shoved his timetable into his pocket.

"Oh…aren't you the kid of that really rich guy?" he asked, remembering something he saw on the newspaper stand.

"Yeah. The guy that gave you your scholarship." Stated Dick.

"Scholarship?" wondered Nico with a frown, he didn't recall Hecate saying anything about a scholarship, but he decided not to dwell on it as the bell to first lesson rang.

"Well, I've got Lit class first, what about you?" asked Dick.

"Uh…" Nico took out his crumpled timetable, and squinted at the words.

"You have Algebra." Said Dick as he read his timetable over Nico's shoulder.

They only had two classes the same, which happened to be the Italian and P.E. While most of Dick's classes were Advanced level since he was mentored by Batman, and was just as smart as someone twice his age, Nico only had Italian language class in Advanced, while the rest of his classes were in the lowest level. Dick decided not to comment on the level of his classes, as the only people who are in those classes are the slackers or the ones with reading or writing disadvantages.

"Well, I'll see you at break, you're welcome to join Babs and I during it." He said.

"Babs?" said Nico.

"Barbara Gordon. You know, the daughter of Commissioner Gordon of GCPD?"  
At his blank look, Dick figured Nico probably lived somewhere else before he came to Gotham.

* * *

 

"Oh it doesn't matter, you'll meet her then. Bye for now." And with that Dick disappeared into crowd of students rushing around to get to their class. Nico blinked, then sighed when he realised that he would have to guess his way around again. This was going to be a long day.

Nico shouldered his backpack as he sped-walked out of the school, already tired of the place and wanting to get as far away as possible.

"Hey! Nico! Wait up." Called Dick behind him.

After boring teachers, awkward lunch breaks and annoying students later, Nico was ready to quit the damn school, and he had only been there for a day. The son of Hades still remembered the last time he was at school – at Westover Hall with Bianca when he was about 10. That was 3 years ago, and he barely did much at that military school.

"Alfred's coming to pick us up, you need a ride?" said Dick.

"I'm good." He said. "Uh, see you tomorrow." He said, before he headed down the street.

"Wait, what's your cell?" asked Dick.

"I…um…don't have one." Stated Nico plainly.

"How?" said Babs, confused, as pretty much everyone had a phone these days.

"Look, I have to go now...my, um, mum. Yeah that's right, my mum wants me home early today."

And with that, Nico hurried down the street with his backpack over his shoulder, he didn't see Dick's raised brow and Babs' wondering expression. Once Nico was sure no one was looking, he slipped into a nearly alley, and shadow-travelled to his studio apartment that Hecate had given him.

The apartment consisted of 1 bathroom and a small kitchen area in the corner. It had no rooms, since it was a studio, not that Nico minded. He knew he would barely use the bed, as he would be busy out at night on the mission, so he had pushed it to the side and created a large empty space in the middle of the apartment. Nico dropped his backpack, and randomly picked a shirt and pants from the wardrobe before rushing into the bathroom. He stripped himself off of his dreaded Gotham Academy uniform before running his hair under the shower. He absolutely hated hair-gel more than anything, but Hecate had put a tube of hair gel in the duffel bag, with a note saying that he would need to use it for going to a private school like G.A. Nico stepped out of the shower and it was then, when he noticed what he had gotten from the wardrobe.

The black t-shirt had a skull in the middle, and 'Ghost King' was printed in Ancient Greek below it. The black camouflage pants fitted him perfectly as he headed out of the bathroom, drying his shaggy black locks with a towel. Nico then headed over to the wardrobe, and realised that there was about 6 black shirts and pants, all the same as the one he was wearing.

He frowned, _was this the only clothing Hecate gave me?_

He also found a several black cloaks hung in the wardrobe and grew even more confused. He had an aviator's jacket, wasn't that enough? But something in the back of his mind told him to pick the cloak instead of the jacket for tonight, so he went pulled his arms through the baggy sleeves. Nico then went over to the fridge that Hecate had loaded with food for him, and picked up a sandwich. He then went over and picked up the map of Gotham that he was supposed to follow.

Red crosses marked the areas in which necromancy had been conducted, while a big 'X' crossed over a building called 'Wayne Enterprises' or something, meaning that a sense of powerful dark magic had been conducted there. There were 5 small crosses in total, and Nico figured he would check out the small ones before investigating Wayne Enterprises. He looked at the first location: Cathedral Square. Go figure. Creepy church with a graveyard. Of course. So the son of Hades decided to stay in for a little bit, perhaps attempt a little bit on his homework before heading off.

* * *

 

It was late October, which meant the air was already starting to get quite chilly as Nico realised he had shadow-travelled a few blocks away from Cathedral Square, meaning that he would have to walk there.

The streets were quiet, dark, and overall smelly. It was only a little past nine thirty, yet the streets only had a maximum of around ten people walking around. Then again, the street Nico walked along was a side-street that was a fair bit off the main road, which would explain the lack of people. He had his hood of his robe pulled over his head, using the shadow to cover most of his face. He figured he must've been a weird sight, although her barely got a second-glance from the civilians as they walked past him.

Perhaps hooded figures was a regular dress code in Gotham, or maybe it was the fear that it may have been a lunatic or ex-con of Arkham Asylum, the two types of people no one wanted to deal with, save for Batman. Nico had reached the main gates to the cathedral, but it was pad-locked shut and a rusted sign for maintenance was hung on the front. The son of Hades made sure no one was looking his way, before he pressed his hand to a nearby wall, and passed through the shadows to get to the other side of the fence/wall.

Cathedral Square was surrounded by brightly-lit tall buildings, yet the moment Nico entered the graveyard area, the atmosphere had turned murky and foggy. A heavy blanket of mist seemed to be permanently situated over the graveyard, and Nico's inner senses told him that this place screamed necromancy and dark arts. He kept his hands on his sword ring as he walked around the graveyard, in search for the area with the highest amount of traces of magic. He saw it before he sensed it.

Whoever did it, they must have been careless.

The soil on the ground was fresh, indicating that it had been dug and tampered with recently. Ripped pieces of paper were strewn on top of the soil as bloody hand prints were stained on the tombstone. The name on the stone itself was already too ruined to read, for the rock had been driven into a poor condition due to weathering. Several claw marks were scratched on the side of the stone, as if a cat had used it as its scratching post. A weirdly shaped and rounded stick of sorts stuck out of the soil, and Nico reeled at the realisation that it was a half-buried human hand that was decomposing rather quickly.

He took that dagger he had strapped to his thigh and used it to pull the hand out of the soil, and from the condition it was in, the person must've died just a few days ago. Nico then went forth and skewered out the ripped pieces of paper off the soil. Broken letters were scattered amongst the pieces, and he quickly realised that he would not have been able to read the page anyways, as it was probably in English. But when he spotted a particularly large piece of paper, Nico realised that it was in fact not in English, but rather, in a mixture of Latin and Hebrew. Realisation hit when he remembered something Hades had told him about a year or so ago when he was living in the Underworld.

**_Flashback_**  
_"Does it have to be food?" asked Nico while he emptied out the bag of Happy Meal into the freshly dug grave._  
"Well, it is the most standard way. I know, you have probably thought that using a dead body or something would work, but that means paper work, and it is against ancient laws to go around killing people for no purpose. It could give you 500 years in the Fields of Punishment." said Hades. "Although, there are apparent 'spells' or sorts made up by mortals who think they can raise the dead by chanting gibberish over a dead body, but I can assure you that it is against the law and will not work."  
**_End of Flashback_**

_Right. So whoever did this thought killing a person and mumbling useless words from an old book would raise the dead_ , he thought with a smirk when quickly did a quick chant, one of cleansing and the lingers of dark magic was gone within a few minutes.

He then checked the time, and discovered that is was, in fact, already 15 past ten. May as well get it over and done with, he thought as he pulled out the map out of his pocket the check the next location.

There was no street address, just a red 'X' over house near a place called 'Amusement Mile'. After double discovering that Amusement Mile was on the other side of Gotham, Nico slipped into a nearby alley and pressed his hand to the wall. Darkness engulfed his vision as he reappeared all the way across Gotham, just a street away from Amusement Mile. But Nico's knee's wobbled and his vision spun when he took a step forwards, and his bones seemed to be crushing him down while his eyelids began to droop.

He realised he had most likely exceeded his shadow-travelling limit, because he felt like he hadn't slept in weeks. Thinking quickly before he collapse, the son of Hades took out the packet of ambrosia from his pocket and cursed mentally when he saw that there was only one square. Well, hopefully he would last the night without anymore, but he quickly doubted that when he had reached the entrance to Amusement Mile.

The entrance was closed, and several police cars were parked in the front. Nico stood in the shadow of a nearby tree, so he was camouflage, but even from there he could spot a large black car with bat wings sticking out the back, as well as a red motorcycle parked next to it, and almost immediately, Nico realised he as going to have a hard time if he was going to have to avoid being seen by Batman and Robin.


	3. Chapter 3

Whatever was going on inside Amusement Mile, it must've been big if Batman and Robin were involved. Nico considered going back there another time, but he realised that he had already gotten there, and a shadow-travel trip back to his studio apartment would drain him of his energy really quickly, and he didn't want to waste the energy gained from eating the ambrosia just to go home when he could just quickly investigate the house that was near Amusement Mile, cleanse if before going home. That way, he would've gotten 2 out of 6 places within a night, which would also mean that he would probably finish this mission within a week or so and leave the damn school. He didn't understand why his father had said the mission would last for 5 months; after all, the mission itself did not seem that hard.

Swiftly and quietly, Nico quickly slipped his map out of his pockets, checking the street and counting the number of blocks the house/area that was marked from Amusement Mile, Nico stepped deeper into the trees’ shadows. He bent down low and raced behind the cop cars, careful not to be seen as he then ran down to the next street. By the time the son of Hades had reached the street of that was marked, it had already been five past eleven. Tall apartment buildings loomed over him on both sides, and Nico figured that this was not a nice neighbourhood as he noticed the dirty streets and the constantly flickering streetlamps, meaning that it probably required maintenance, but no one could be bothered to fix the lights.

Checking over his shoulder a few times, Nico secured the hood on his head, before closely examining any apartment building that stuck out. It was a difficult task, as all the buildings looked exactly the same: tall, with mould-covered concrete walls and the occasional boarded/taped window. The lights from within a few floors up were still on, but Nico smiled to himself is satisfaction when he noticed that there was one building that stuck out: there were no lights on at all, not even for the entrance. He approached the front door to the bottom of the apartment, and when he reached for the handle, Nico noticed that where the door handle should’ve been, a splintered hole replaced its spot. He decided not to investigate as he warily and quietly slipped open the door, and winced when the door hinges made a loud groan. Staying very alert, Nico started to go upstairs, and reached the first door.

A large, rusted and worn sign with a single word was nailed onto the door: _Evicted_. The door was boarded shut, so the son of Hades proceeded to go to the second floor. The stairs creaked beneath him and he was grateful that he was used to moving around in the dark, for there was no light in the whole building. Any sane person his age would’ve been scared out of their wits to go to that apartment building in this darkness, as the only lighting was the glow from the Moon (More like Artemis’ chariot). Nico crept to the second door, and his senses started tingling as he reached the front door. This was the one, he knew it. He could feel the necromancy and dark magic radiating from the room. When he reached for the door handle, the same hole was in its place, just like the one on the door to this building. So, taking a deep breath, Nico drew two knives from his belts, and pushed the door open, preparing himself for whatever gruesome sight that would be behind the door.

* * *

 

“Bats?” said the thirteen-year-old Boy Wonder into his com link quietly as he wondered around Amusement Mile.

Several Gotham City police officers wondered about as well, taking pictures and collecting anything that looked like plausible evidence for the current mystery that was going on.

“Yes?” came the Dark Knight’s gruff tone into Robin’s ear.

“Found anything yet?”

“No. But check the ticket booth, because that was where he worked most of the time.”

Doing exactly what his mentor told him, Robin approached the central ticket booth, sliding out his lock pick from his utility belt as he picked the lock. Within seconds, the lock slid open, and the teen unhooked the padlock and threw it aside. He then pushed up the roll-up door that kept intruders from accessing the insides of the booth and stepped into the small, cramped space.

A box sat on the corner of the desk, as well as a roll of tear-and-go tickets. Below the small desk-like space were a couple of drawers. The top held a stamp and a walkie-talkie that was turned off, but the bottom draw held a silver watch, a small card and bronze ring. Robin wondered why the person would leave such things in this place, but came to a conclusion that it was probably safer to put the items here, rather than wherever a low-income amusement park worker could live in a city like Gotham. The Boy Wonder gathered the items carefully, putting them in evidence bags before slipping them into his utility belt.

“I’ve got something.” He said to his mentor through the com.

“Okay. I have something as well. Have you gathered everything you could?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. Meet me at the Batmobile, I just have some things to clear up with Gordon.”

Robin nodded, but realised that Batman couldn’t see him, so he simply complied and headed back to his bike and the Batmobile.

* * *

 

The door creaked as Nico stepped into the run-down apartment, and the first thing that came to his line of vision and his sense of smell was Blood.

 _A lot_ of it.

The apartment reeked of decomposed meat and blood as he then pulled up his shirt to his nose, and thinking that he’d probably lost his appetite for the next month. Blood was everywhere, smudged all over the walls and ground. While a torn up piece if paper sat in the corner, its ripped remains lay all over the wooden ground. There was no furniture in the apartment, and Nico noticed that amidst the blood were globs of a white, hardened substance. He stepped towards the torn paper first, noticed that there weren’t broken Latin or Hebrew letters on the pieces. Instead, there were thick lines, as it was once a picture.

The pieces were relatively big, and there was only five in total. Thus, Nico began to put them back together as quick as possible, and needless to say, it didn’t take long for a full picture to form. It was a star, with a circle around it, and the Son of Hades recognised the symbol immediately. It was used for an ancient ritual to communicate with the spirits, known as Séance. In mortal beliefs, the ritual required the symbol to be drawn on the ground, and five candles must sit on the points of the star, while whoever was attempting it would have to chant an ancient verse. But Nico knew better, and that this was another attempt to raise/communicate with the dead using forced necromancy. In fact, the ‘ancient’ chant wasn’t actually a chant, it was more like a useless poem about Hades’ eternal boredom ruling the Underworld (and Nico knew this because his father himself was the one who wrote it), but it wasn’t like anyone could or actually was bothered to translate all five-hundred pages of the ‘original’ chant (Being immortal gave Hades a lot of time to himself). The thirteen year old supressed a smirk as he realised the poor attempt from whomever had tried to perform the Séance. It had obviously not worked, and they had obviously tried to draw the symbol in someone’s blood, and Nico suspected that it was probably the same blood from the owner of the amputated hand that was in the grave at Gotham Cathedral. The white globs were melted wax from the candles.

Quickly saying the chant to cleanse the place of dark magic, Nico then slipped back out the door, and left the building without making that much of a racket. He was barely half-way down the street when he heard a loud, angered groan from behind him. Pulling his hood up further, Nico quickened his pace to a shadowy spot to shadow-travel away as he heard the groan again. Footsteps could be heard, and a loud splat came from behind him.

Turning around slowly, the Son of Hades froze when he saw what was behind him: A large yet very skinny…person of sorts clumsily stumbled its way towards the demigod. Its movements matched the ones of a zombie, yet Nico knew that if it actually were a zombie, he would’ve been able to control it or destroy very easily. However, this was not the case. This thing was at least three metres tall. Its skin was made from raw Earth, and its feet were made of dripping wet mud. Three arms sprouted from each side, and Nico counted six arms in total. Its face was skeletal like, with two holes for eyes, and a rugged clump of mud for a mouth. It groaned and shuffled its way towards the demigod, and for a second, the teen could only stand and stare at the creature in confusion, wondering whether or not it was neutral or if it was going to harm.

His mind was made up suddenly, when it started gathering large balls of mud, and tossed it at the demigod’s head. Nico ducked just in time, and the creature groaned in annoyance as its six arms began to fire mud balls at the Son of Hades.

 _What_ is _that?_ He wondered as he drew his sword and, while dodging all of the mud, he swiftly lunged forth and cut down the Earth-born like creature.

Nico was about to leave, when he heard yet another groan, and turned to see that the Earthborn had already re-formed.

“What the…” he said to himself as the teen lunged and stabbed the creature yet again.

This time however, running quickly away so he would not have to deal with it again. He was utterly confused as he sprinted to the nearest alley, what in Hades was that? he thought to himself, but as soon as he shadow-travelled to his studio apartment, his head had gone heavy, and within moments he had collapsed onto his bed, still fully-clothed and drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.

* * *

 

Dick sat in Italian class the next morning. It was thirty-five minutes pass eight, meaning that class had started five minutes ago, and yet, a certain teen that goes by the name Nico di Angelo had not shown up yet. He had already missed homeroom, and Dick was beginning to think that he was probably not going to show up all together when said teen stumbled into the room, his uniform messy, and shirt was crumpled and half untucked.

“Ah, I see our new student have finally decided to arrive.” said Ms. Brown.

The students snickered as Nico shook his head slightly, and mumbled a small apology.

“Sorry? I didn’t hear that.” said the teacher.

“Sorry…” he muttered.

“Sorry for what? I didn’t quite hear that, would you mind repeating that, Mr. di Angelo?”

“I’m sorry for being late to class, and I _promise_ I will be here _right_ on time next time.” snapped Nico suddenly in a mocking manner.

Ms. Brown looked shocked at his slight outburst.

“Young man, that is no way to speak to a teacher. But since this is your first time in this class, I shall let you off for your little slip up.” she said curtly.

However, all Nico did was narrow his eyes at her as he gave her a slight nod, before settling himself down next to Dick.

“Dude, you’re nearly an hour late to school. Late night?” said Dick.

“You could say that.” came Nico’s muttered reply as he set his books down carelessly, his eyes still trained on Ms. Brown who was screeching to the class about obedience.

Ms. Brown was a grumpy old lady, with white hair and rounded glasses to match the look. Yet Nico still had his narrowed eyes trained on her.

“Would someone give us a recap of what you did last year?” she said to the class in a sickly-sweet voice.

“She wasn’t here before?” whispered Nico.

“Nope. As far as I know, she was a replacement teacher for our original teacher who had to take long service leave.” said Dick.

Nico’s eyes narrowed even more as the teacher pointed her wrinkled finger at him.

“Perhaps, Mr. di Angelo, you would like to show us how to read the following passage. After all, I sure your _father_ or a family member must’ve taught you Italian before you came to our wonderful school.” she said.

Nico stiffened, as he felt his sword hand twitch.

“I’d rather not, _Ms_.” he hissed as he glared at the teacher.

Ms. Brown merely smiled at him in a creepy way as she headed for his desk, and slammed a book down in front of him.

“But I _insist_.” she snarled.

Nico curled his fists beneath his table until he knew there would be nail marks on his palm the next day, and he clenched his jaw as he darted his eyes from the still smiling Ms. Brown to the Italian text book in front of him.

“As you wish, _teacher_.” he said through gritted teeth.

The class seemed to be in a daze as this happened, not realising the tense Nico, or the creepily smiling old teacher. Dick was the only one who noticed, but chose to keep silent as he watched the ordeal and he took in the teen’s and the old hag’s body language.

“ _There once was a beautiful queen who lived in Libya, and she had many children. One day, her children were taken away from her because of a jealous witch, just because she was far better than her._ ” read Nico stiffly in fluent Italian.

“How does this story have anything to do with class?” he asked in a steel voice.

“Oh, nothing. Just a simply tragic tale of an old queen of Libya.”

Dick was swayed by this tale, and he almost saw the evil gleam in Ms. Brown’s eye as she headed back towards the front of the room, but he missed it as he began to pack his books. Nico’s hard eyes didn’t soften, but suddenly, the bell for next period rang loud and clear, snapping the other students out of their seemingly unnoticeable daze. Dick looked back at where Nico sat moments ago, but found that he was already out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

“So, how was double maths?” said Dick with a slight smirk as he watched Nico slam his textbooks into his locker as he reached for his lunch.

“Makes me want to stab myself in the eye.” said Nico as he practically smashed his locker shut, aggravated beyond belief because of what happened during his second maths lesson at Gotham Academy.

He had to endure the first half of the first lesson with class-mates laughing at him behind his back as he struggled to read the word ‘Algebra’ on the board. And if that wasn’t enough, he had a double lesson. It had taken the teacher at least twenty minutes to explain the concept of using pro-numerals for algebraic expressions to Nico, who _still_ didn’t understand why _x_ was a number that could be anything. To him, the whole concept made no sense, yet the spoiled brats of Gotham Academy seemed to deem him below them just because he wasn’t rich and couldn’t read.

Dick, however, did not quite understand why Nico didn’t understand the concepts of simple _algebra_. The adopted son of the so called ‘prince of Gotham’ had done algebra since he was in fifth grade, and was currently doing surds and trigonometry (well, in school anyways. At home he was currently working through calculus).

“Hello? Earth to rich boy.” said Nico.

“Sorry, spaced out there.” said Dick as the pair then headed off towards the bench where Barbara was sitting.

“Hey Babs.” greeted Dick, while Nico simply gave her a faint nod.

“Urgh. I just had double French and _man_ ; Madame Pe’roche is _such_ a bad teacher. Our test that’s forty-percent of our grade is in a couple weeks and she didn’t even tell us until today.” complained Babs as she then bit into her sandwich.

“How was maths?” she asked.

“Eh, same old same old.” replied Dick.

“Nico?” said Babs with a frown, noticing that the thirteen-year-old was staring at his sandwich, lost in thought.

Dick slapped him on the back, causing the teen to jump slightly as he then glared at Dick. Said boy was surprised, for Nico’s glare was nearly, _nearly_ enough to rival Batman’s glare, and he wondered how a teenager who wasn’t mentored by Batman to master such a harsh look.

“What?” snapped Nico.

“Uh, nothing. You just kind of like, lost yourself there.”

The Goth-like teenager merely grunted as he proceeded to eat his sandwich. For the rest of the lunch break, Dick and Babs talked without pause while Nico sat there, a million things going through his head as he slowly ate his sandwich. The students who walked pass him would think that he had anti-social problems, but no one would guess that he was actually thinking of reasons why a person who knew how to conduct the dark magic of necromancy to go to a place like the one on the map he saw. He had looked at the map quickly as he left home that morning, and took note of the next place in line that he was going to visit later that night: Ace chemicals.

“—yeah, and then Dent just went all psycho and shot three people—“

“What’s Ace Chemicals?” said Nico, interrupting Barbara as she was halfway through telling Dick of how her father had managed to capture Two Face a couple of weeks ago.

She shot the teen an annoyed look, but Dick answered.

“It’s a chemical plant near midtown.”

“Right. Has there been anything going on there?” asked Nico.

“Don’t think so, why?” asked Dick, eyebrow raised.

“Just wondering.”

Dick didn’t believe him, but nevertheless let him be as the bell rang, signalling that it was the end of lunch.

“We have gym now.”

Nico groaned at this, before heading towards the gym with Dick by his side.

As soon as the pair entered the change rooms, the stench of smelly feet and sweat filled the air. Neither of the boys flinched at this, as Dick went forth and set down his bag.

“Do you have the P.E. uniform?” he asked.

Nico gave him a blank stare in return.

“Well, lucky for you, I have a spare set.”

Nico took it with a nod for thanks, just as the rest of the boys from their class filed in, and began to change. Dick changed quickly, as he had practiced getting changed with lightning speed before. Just when he finished tying his shoe-laces, he turned, and watched as Nico struggled to put his shirt on. Dick was surprised when he saw the other boy’s bare back.

While he had originally thought that he was skinny and probably scrawny, the other teen actually had muscles on his back, as well as in his arms. Dick pondered over that Nico probably did sports before, but what had got him thinking hard was the fact that there were scars on his back. There were light scotch-marks on his arms, as if he had been burned there. Various cut marks were visible scattered throughout his arms and back, and just as he turned around, still struggling to get his shirt on, Dick noticed three faint, but clearly visible lines that ran from his collar-bone down to his torso. Finally, Nico had gotten his shirt on, and proceeded to pat his messily gelled hair down.

“Finally, took you long enough.” smirked Dick as Nico rolled his eyes at him.

“Your shirt’s too small.” he said.

The son of Bruce Wayne merely tutted, before sitting down on the bleachers as the two waited for the rest of the class to come in.

“Oh look, Dicky-poo as gotten himself a boyfriend, how _sweet_.” sneered a voice.

Nico turned with a look of annoyance on his face, but Dick didn’t seem to hear them as he was still deep in thought as to the reasons for Nico’s scars. The three boys behind the pair continued on their jests and mockery at Dick and Nico, making the occasional kissing noise. They were starting to get on Nico’s nerves, so he promptly turned around with an annoyed scowl on his face.

“Will you three just get a room already? Your constant flirting and smothering of air kisses is hurting my brain.”

A few students next to them snickered, while two of the boys flushed in embarrassment, but the third boy puffed his scrawny chest out to make himself look buffer as he stood until he was nose-to-nose to Nico.

“How dare you speak to me like that.” He sneered.

Nico raised an eyebrow. “How dare I? What are you, royalty?”

“Do you even know who my father is? He is one of the _richest_ men in Gotham City. Who’s your daddy? Some beggar on the street? I bet you’re not even _close_ to being rich. Did your mommy sleep her way into getting you into this school?”

Nico’s eyes flashed darkly as he could feel his sword had twitch as rose slowly from his seat, giving the ginger in front of him the fiercest glare he’s ever given.

“ _What did you say_?” hissed Nico.

And right then, Dick knew that Albert Crawford, snobby and rude little rich brat who didn’t like being humiliated had made a very, _very_ bad move.

“I don’t give a damn fuck who your daddy is, or how he’d manage to get a whore for a wife to spawn a little shit like you. Just because some people actually have to do something to earn money doesn’t mean they’re a beggar or a slut. Your daddy may have to power to fire some high class business men, but my dad can make your life a living hell for as long as it pleases me.”

By then, Nico had his right hand wrapped around Albert’s collar, and had pushed him against the wall while crushing his windpipe. It was then, when Nico noticed that everyone had gone silent, and not a single bit of noise was heard at all in the room, until loud footsteps stormed into the gymnasium.

“Put him _down_ this instant.” yelled a gruff male voice as the students turned in surprise at the arrival of Coach Nor.

Nico dropped Albert abruptly, still not aware that his hands were still trembling slightly from his anger or Albert’s frightened squeal as he scrambled away.

“I don’t know how they did it in your old school, but here at Gotham Academy, we do not treat fellow students with violence. What is your name?”

Nico shot the teacher a steel look, before curling his hands into fists as he grumbled his name.

“I will let you off with a warning this time, but if I find you physically assaulting another student next time, you will be reported to the principal. Is that clear?”

Nico nodded reluctantly and sat down angrily, and Dick was still mentally replaying over the words Nico had just said. The boy had to admit; even he was a little startled by Nico’s temper flare, and was quite fazed by his sudden use of colourful language. He had noticed that Nico did not mention his mum, or how he had said his dad could ruin someone’s life _until he was pleased_ …That was not a usual threat, Dick realised as he thought it over again. Most people would threaten people’s money, or threaten to kill. Even a threat to make one’s life a living hell had a limit, right? _For as long as it pleases me_ …Dick was convinced that he was over-thinking a teenager’s angry rant over a temper flare, but he could not silence his detective brain as he practically analysed Nico’s rant to detail. _Surely, when he meant ‘as long as it pleases me’ would mean that until the person was dead…_ but his train of thoughts were interrupted as Coach Nor waved a stack of papers in the air.

“Alright, here is a notice for you kids to let you know that we are going rock climbing next double lesson. I have already informed your parents of the trip.”

Dick swore he saw Nico’s eyes brighten just the tiniest amount, but it was gone as quickly as it came.

* * *

 

“Are we patrolling tonight or what?” asked the ever impatient Dick as he pushed his plate that was clear of and pasta left, as the boy had devoured the whole meal.

“Have you finished your homework yet?” asked Bruce.

Dick rolled his eyes.

“I finished them in class already.”

“Good. I’ve been getting reports of someone breaking into Ace Chemicals repeatedly, leaving no trace behind.”

Dick thought back to lunch break with Nico earlier that day, when the other teen had questioned the same chemical plant and its location. _Surely, he wouldn’t be involved?_ But Dick immediately pushed the thought away, ridiculing himself of such a stupid idea. Nico was just curious, after all, he was new to Gotham City.

“When are we going?” asked the thirteen-year-old.

“As soon as I finish this cup of coffee.”

And Bruce calmly drank down the beverage, taking his time before wiping his mouth on a napkin.

“Thanks, Alfred.”

Alfred nodded before exiting the room with the plates from dinner balanced perfectly on his hands and arms. When Bruce turned his attention back to the dinner table, he had found that his young partner had already vanished without a sound.

A smirk tugging on his lips, the young billionaire made his way to the old grandfather clock in the living room, and proceeded to ride the elevator towards his secret arsenal known as the Batcave.

* * *

 

Nico was in his aviator jacket this time, not his hooded cloak as he made his way through the crowded and busy streets of midtown Gotham. He wondered how a well-populated and crowded city could have areas such as Cathedral Square, where everything was quiet and ominous. He supposed that all cities must have a place where it wasn’t always deserted, so he deduced that that place must’ve been the creepy and murky graveyard of the cathedral.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he continued his way down the street, his thoughts drifting to that little shithead from earlier that day. How _dare_ the brat accuse him of having a whore mother, just because he wasn’t rich? How _dare_ he say those words that could get him a one-way ticket to the Fields of Punishment? That mortal was going to pay, Nico knew it. He vowed to seek vengeance on Albert Crawford, but then his sadistic thoughts of ways to torture the boy suddenly faded away when he had arrived at his destination: Ace Chemicals. The building’s neon sign flickered so often, and it seemed to glow green with its toxicity from the outside.

Rusted barb-wire fences were wrapped around the building, with chemical signs and ‘Authorised Personnel Only’ was printed on every single door that was assessable. Noticing the video cameras surrounding the area, Nico sighed as he turned his heel and walked back the way he came, until he was out of the camera’s sight and slipped into an alleyway. He thought his decisions over; if the front entrance was this heavily guarded, how would he get inside? He considered shadow-travelling, but then he could tire out quickly, and he had never been inside Ace Chemicals before, which meant he wouldn’t have a clue of where he would go if he shadow-travelled.

He surveyed his surroundings, and that was when he noticed that the brick wall in front of him had several fissures along the cracks. An idea struck him as he reached down and took out the two daggers that were strapped onto his belt. He had only brought his sword and two daggers that night, and left the other three back in his apartment. Within minutes, Nico had managed to climb to the top of the building simply by stabbing his daggers into the wall.

The building was exactly next to Ace Chemicals, with a two metre gap between the roof to the one Nico was standing on, and a small vent tube that stuck out of the chemical plant. The son of Hades glanced down at the ground eight metres below and gulped; _well, even if I fell down I could just dissolve and appear back on the alley…_ reasoned Nico inside his head as he noticed the large shadow of the building that was cast on the ground. The teen was never one for parkour like the Hermes kids did all the time, but nevertheless, he had made his decision to jump as he couldn’t think of another way to get into the building.

Taking a few steps back, Nico took a deep breath, readying himself for the leap and he sprinted the two metre run-up. He jumped high in the air, foot grazing the barb wire just inches below as his hands touched the rusted texture of top of the air vent. His fingers slip backwards and the blunt but hard ledges of the vent cover dug under his fingernails painfully. His feet dangled in mid-air, and for a second, Nico feared plunging into the hard concrete group below as the full moon had vanquished the ground of any shadows.

Thinking fast, Nico held on to the top with his right arm, using his left to grab his dagger and stabbed it onto the side of the vent. Using it as a foot rest, the teen then grabbed onto his other dagger with his right hand, sliding the blade into the small gap between the vent cover and the vent itself, before bending it outwards. The cover popped over with a loud screech, and Nico went silent for a moment in case anyone heard.

When no one came, he quickly shoved the dagger into his pocket, pushing his feet into the vent and grabbing his other dagger that he’d been using as a foot rest. Pushing the cover back into place behind him, Nico slowly pushed himself down the confined space of the vent, choosing to ignore the amount of grim and rust rubbing onto his jacket and black jeans. When he finally reached the first opening, he pushed the over off slightly, surprised that it swung open easily and was not bolted shut. Nico climbed out of the vent, ad noticed that he had arrived in an equipment room. Noticing the line of gas masks on the wall along with gloves to match, he saw a door at the end of the room with a picture of a gas mask. A blue triangle was around it, and Nico struggled to define the letters that swam across the sign; ‘ _Caution: Gas Masks required.’_

The boy briefly considered just going into the room, but remembered that he was only a human, not super human as he then grabbed a gas mask off the wall. Slapping it on his face and slipping on the gloves, he saw that the eye coverings were fairly cloudy and he could not see properly, thus, he did not see that there was another empty hook on the wall that was were another gas mask was meant to be.

Opening the door as quietly as he could, Nico stepped onto a metal catwalk, and was suddenly grateful that his mask had clouded eye holes. Large pits of bubbling green and purple liquids sat on the ground. They seemed to glow green and Nico could _see_ the yellow-ish particles it produced from the chemicals. He was never good at science, so he didn’t know what kind of chemicals it was. Walking along the catwalk across the room, he noticed that the handrails were also coated in yellow particles, and Nico chose not to touch it as he continued his way across the room towards a landing just ten metres away.

He had just arrived at a cross-road of catwalk, when something caught his eye. He turned, and noticed that the handrail in one of the sections of the catwalk to his left was different, _shiny_. Nico frowned and walked towards it, examining it more closely to see what was different about it, and that was when he noticed that it was new. It wasn’t rusted or coated in yellowy particles, and just as he reached a gloved hand to touch it, he suddenly felt hands on his back. Nico didn’t know what happened, but the within the next moment, he was falling through the air, plunging head-first into the green chemical below him. He did not scream, only cursed as he saw the pit come closer and closer. And just as his head was about to make contact with the toxic, someone black and slammed into his side, and Nico was knocked out instantly.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm in pursuit!" yelled Robin over his com-link as he sprinted full pace towards the hooded figure who was running away.

"Roger that. I have the other one here, but he's unconscious." said Batman as he slung the boy who he'd saved from falling head-first into the chemical over his shoulder.

The boy was out cold from the sheer force of Batman slamming into his side, and the dark knight figured he wouldn't wake anytime soon. Even if he did, the boy wouldn't be able to move a muscle without feeling like he'd been his in the head with a truck. Firing his grappling-hook at the metal catwalk above, Batman launched himself on the platform, carrying the unconscious boy over his shoulder and dumped him into the gas-mask room, taking off the boy's over-sized protective gloves and gas-mask in the process.

He studied the boy's pale face. There didn't seem to be any weapons on him, except for maybe the small skull ring on his pinkie-finger. But Batman didn't think it would do much harm in a fight anyways, unless if it was a magical ring, and unless if the boy was a sorcerer of any kind. The detective couldn't deny the possibility, as he had seen far weirder things in his life. The boy could be the devil's spawn for all he knew, but that seemed the most ridiculous idea above all. Batman studied the strange letters on the boy's shirt for a second; it seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't decipher it exactly as it was not English or Italian or French or any of the many languages the dark knight could speak.

As he studied the boy's face again, he swore he had seen him around before, but he couldn't tell exactly where, and his protégé's voice startled him slightly and snapped him away from his thoughts.

"He's getting away!"

"I'm on my way." replied Batman as he re-positioned his gas-mask (smaller than the one the boy had on) and stepped back into the room.

Retracing the steps he saw Robin took as he glanced back at the door to the equipment room. He was certain that there was no way the boy could escape so quickly, yet why did he feel so uneasy about leaving the teen back there by himself?

* * *

 

"Oh good, the sleeping beauty awakes." mocked a familiar voice as Nico opened his eyes.

His side hurt like Hades and his head throbbed as if it had been run over by a tank.

"It's on the table." said the voice, and Nico felt around him until his hand curled around the cup on the table beside him.

He drank it gingerly, and realised that it was nectar as he tasted liquid smoked cheesecake. With his migraine gone and vision cleared, Nico was finally able to register his surroundings. He was laid on a white hospital bed, but he wasn't exactly  _in_ a hospital. The room he was in was a cave. Torches were lit along the walls and in the middle of the room sat a lady in purple velvet robes. She wore celestial bronze rings with the occasional gold one, and her eyes were bright orange, as if there were pits of fire burning within them. Nico recognised her immediately.

"Lady Hecate." He said.

"Son of Hades. Had a good fall?" she asked.

"Fall…?" he wondered.

And then it came back to him. How he had sneaked into Ace Chemicals through the air vent, how he had been walking along the catwalk over large pits of toxic chemicals when he felt someone push him off, and how just as he hit the liquid,  _something_ had slammed into his side before he went out.

"Wait, where—"

"You're in my house right now, actually." said Hecate.

"You're physical being is not actually here, just your dream state."

"I'm dreaming?"

"Why do you sound so surprised?"

Nico went silent, for he was rather used to having dreams were gods would come take a visit and have a little chat with him.

"Wait a minute; I didn't sense any dark magic at Ace Chemicals. Why did you send me there?"

"Because it is related to the person you're looking for." stated Hecate calmly, despite Nico's growing frustration with the goddess, as he had now realised him going to Ace chemicals was practically pointless.

He'd remembered that he had  _definitely_ not sense any kind of dark magic of any kind in the chemical plant, but then he realised; the person who pushed him off must've been the same one Nico was after.

"Well, I'm assuming he got away. What did he do at Ace?"

Hecate paused her movements of stirring the glass of wine that was perched on the arm of her chair with her finger and frowned, as if trying to see what had happened in the past.

"I am the goddess of magic, not time. Although I have gathered enough from this person's intentions to know what he had stolen."

"So? What did he steal? What is he trying to achieve from raising the dead and stealing chemicals?"

Hecate sent Nico a stink eye as she huffed in irritation.

"I cannot tell you everything, boy. There are something's you must find out on your own, not for me to say. But let me tell you one thing; the next location is the Slaughter Swamp around the outskirts of Gotham. Do not go there tomorrow night. Go there on Friday night."

Tomorrow was Wednesday.

"Right. So what do you want me to do for the next two nights then?"

"Your homework?"

The goddess smirked when she saw Nico blanch visibly.

"I'm not talking about school homework. I want you to do my homework to you."

With a flick of her hand, a brown folder appeared in the goddess' hand. Nico reached and grabbed it, but before he could open, he felt his surroundings start to fade as he started to wake.

"Be careful, son of Hades. And a last warning until we next meet, do not get caught by the bats. The  _birds_ especially."

* * *

 

Batman aimed a batarang at the hooded figure, but they ducked before it made contact with their head. The dark knight cursed under his breath as he and Robin sprinted across the rooftop on Ace chemicals after the figure. They were fast, and Robin swore he had seen talon-like finger nails sticking out of the figure's sleeves, and they were attached to fingers that were inhumanly white.

The dynamic duo finally slowed when the figure slowed too, and all three of them came to a stop at the edge of the roof.

"Hood down, hands up." growled Batman as he proceeded forward to arrest the figure, but was stopped short when they turned around.

Red bolts of energy shot from the sleeves of the black robe, and behind it, a similarly red portal opened. Batman and Robin ducked and rolled out of the way of the bolts, and amidst all the chaos, the figure turned around and stepped into the portal.

"No!" Robin fired his own grappling hook at them, in a desperate attempt to catch, but to no avail, as the figure had already disappeared.

"Who was that?" asked Robin as him and his mentor brushed themselves off.

"I think I may have an idea. I'll have to check back on the security footages from Ace Chemicals." stated Batman as he pressed a button on his wrist computer, and out popped the computer hologram.

He pressed several more buttons, and a red dot blinked on his map for a sec. Smirking slightly, the dark knight then closed the computer seconds after and headed back towards the inside of the building.

"You put a tracker on him?"

Batman nodded as he opened the door.

"Where are we going?" asked Robin.

"To ask the other one some questions." And Robin nodded in understanding as he put his gas-mask back on, ready to interrogate the other thief that must've worked with whoever they were chasing moments ago. Little did they know, the tracker was not in fact stuck on the back of the mysterious person's hooded robe; rather, it was on the ground just outside the side door of the Ace chemicals building, just waiting for a certain thirteen-year-old to step on accidently and get it stuck in the sole of his shoe.

* * *

 

Nico's eyes snapped open as he shot up, feeling like he had just woken up from a two week nap. Energised and with all of the pain from his earlier fiasco with the drop into the toxic pit gone, he realised that he was actually back in the equipment room. His gloves and mask was cast aside. Nico wondered what had happened to him, and who had saved him, then he remembered what Hecate had told him:  _be careful of the bats, the_ birds  _especially_.

Right. So it was Batman and Robin. Wonderful. He did not need to deal with costumed vigilantes right now. He had to find out what the person behind the necromancy had stolen gods' dammit, not fight off two heroes. Brushing himself off, he closed his eyes and tried the new trick he had been practicing over the past couple of months. Every living being has an aura, and sometimes they would leave behind something that was from the person. It was a confusing concept, and Hades had to use the example of how dogs and wolfs trace humans to Nico in order for the teen to understand. Although Nico was not a shape-shifter of any kind, he had grown to learn how to use his powers as the son of Hades to track and trace someone, like a tiger sniffing for prey.

Catching on the Shadow Scent (as Nico called it) of the person who pushed him off the catwalk, Nico slowly made his way to the other door of the equipment room, one that was not leading towards the large open space with the catwalks and pits of toxic chemicals, he opened the door and continued forwards. He was in a hallway, with several doors on the sides. He walked down and realised that they were labs and rooms full of different chemicals. Pausing a moment to find the scent of the person who had pushed him off again (he had traced it using small particles that were left behind from the back of his jacket where the person's hands had been), Nico soon found the scent leading into a lab.

The sign on the door looked like the mixed up letters from an alphabet soup, and it took him several minutes to realise it meant: Toxic. Pushing the door open, he scanned his eyes along the shelves, trying to find what was missing. He almost,  _almost_ missed the small of the shelf that was empty, and he stood in front of it and noticed that the bottle that was meant to be there was missing. A label of the chemical was stuck onto the side of the shelf, and Nico knew that even if he didn't have dyslexia, he still had no chance in knowing that in Hades the two scrambled words of the name of the chemical meant.

So, just as he used his knife to cut out the label so he could do some research later, he heard the creak of a door ever so slightly, and Nico could sense two approaching figures. Cursing quietly, Nico slipped his knife back into his pocket and headed back out into the corridor.

"Stop!" yelled a voice behind him, and Nico broke into a run towards the fire exit at the end of the corridor.

Hurrying to slam the fire door shut behind him, he stepped onto the metal landing just on the side of the building. He thought he felt something jab onto the bottom of his shoe, but he had more important things to worry about as he practically flew down the metal stairs that led to the side exit of the fence around Ace Chemicals. Nico didn't fancy climbing a barb wire fence, so he faced the wall instead, pressing his hand against the bricks and shadow-travelled away, just as Batman and Robin slammed open the fire door and discovered that the boy who was too hard to make out due to the darkness of the corridor had disappeared.

Maybe it was the gloominess of the city, or maybe it was the mentally-ill and sadistic nature of most of the cons at Arkham Asylum, but there was something about Gotham city that always made our neighbourhood boy wonder to be darker and less-cheerful than he was around his teammates. Robin could feel his face contort into an annoyed scowl, mirroring Batman's as they drove back to the Batcave.

"Did you capture the thief, sir?" asked Alfred as soon as the Batmobile's engine turned off.

The dark knight's rough grunt was enough to tell the butler otherwise. Taking swift steps, Batman strode towards the computer and sat down, not even pausing to take off his mask as his fingers danced over the keyboard like birds on water.  _Hexavalent Chromium_ , were the two words printed large on the screen and paragraphs of information about the chemical substance's use and toxicity.

"What's it used for?" asked Robin.

"It is used to make stainless steel, wood preservation and textiles dye in the industry. But when it is in a gas state, is can cause lung cancer if inhaled."

"What would that, um, person with red energy do with it?"

"Well, he could make copies of it and release it into the air, but that would require a concentrated dose on everyone if he intends to make  _everyone_ get lung cancer. Or he just wants it for industrial use."

"Yes, but that's the possibility of any  _normal_ person. We're talking about a guy with white skin, talon-like finger nails and super powers. Does that ring any bells?"

Batman thought it over, thinking hard until one particular villain came into his mind.

"Klarion the Witch boy." He stated.

"The lord of chaos. This is not good, why would he want something like that?"

"Don't know, but being the attention seeker he is, it won't be long before he announces it to everyone he could tell about whatever he's up to."

"And there's also the other guy, the one who nearly fell into the toxic."

The flashback came straight back to Batman… how a man in a tuxedo had been on that same catwalk at Ace Chemicals... a red hood on his head deterring his vision and blocking Batman from recognising his identity as he slipped and fell into the toxic chemicals…and how that same man was now Batman's most hated lunatic, the clown who had filled stadium sized graveyards with bodies… Batman shook his head slightly to clear himself of the thoughts, and re-focused on what Robin had been saying for the past few moments.

"—say about that?"

"Who?" asked Batman cluelessly.

Robin rolled his eyes, for this was the side of Batman no one other than Alfred and Robin saw.

"Gordon. What did he say about the man who was murder at Amusement Mile?"

"His name was Theon Raymond Rykel. 34 years old with no living family alive. He's worked at Amusement Mile for around six years now as a ticket-cashier. Before that he worked as a janitor here and there."

Batman tapped opened his wrist computer and typed a few things into the holographic keyboard, and within moments, an image popped up on the large screen of the Batcave computer. The image was quite gruesome, showing the blood-splattered walls and floor of the apartment of Theon Rykel. Lumps of white melted wax was all over the ground, yet no body parts were found.

"From the amputated arm we found on the grounds of Amusement Mile, I'm assuming he was targeted." stated the dark knight.

"Well, what was so suspicious about the murder anyways? He wasn't an ex-con, was he?"

"No. He wasn't. This really raises the question as to why he was killed. I did an ancestral look-up on him last night, and the most, well; interesting one was his great-great-grandmother Rachel Rykel. She was a local prostitute here at Gotham City, and had an affair with several wealthy merchants. She then fell pregnant with one of her clients, and died on her three days before her 42nd birthday, when her son was 21."

"How'd she die?"

"Cancer. Some unspecified STDs that the people from the 19th century couldn't figure out, they just know that it was cancer."

"Who was the father?"

"Not recorded. Unless if we do a thorough DNA scan of whatever's left of Theon and with every record there ever was from the 19th century, there's no way of finding out."

Batman and Robin then spent the next hour examining the evidence they had collected from the night before, and concluded they would have to go to the apartment of Theon Rykel to send his DNA to S.T.A.R. labs in Gotham for at least some examinations.

"Wait, you said you put a tracker onto Klarion, right? Well if he had gone through his portal to some other dimension, it'd probably destroy the signal all together, right?"

"Yes, but it doesn't matter. There's no way we can track Klarion anyways." replied Batman as he opened up his wrist computer. But he then frowned when he saw a red dot on his map, beeping and the signal was strong.

"He's still in Gotham?" asked Robin.

"It appears to be. Maybe he just stopped over, but there's no point in going there, he would have left by the time we got there."

"Don't forget the other boy, the one who ran from the side door." said Robin, but Batman just shook his head.

"Klarion works alone. The boy is just another one of the few teens who just want to follow us around. I'll just  _make sure_ he won't do it again if he tries that."

And with that, the dynamic duo headed back up the elevator towards Wayne Manor, having a first early night in what seemed like centuries.


	6. Chapter 6

“I’m going to Tokyo.”

“What?” exclaimed Dick who sat across from his adopted father in the living room of Wayne Manor.

“The CEO of Mazda wants me there for a grand showcase of the 25th anniversary. He says the Mx-15 will be revealed.”

“But, can’t you blow it off or something?”

“I already have, three times in the past two years. Declining all the time will draw suspicion and everything at Wayne Enterprises is working fine, even the stock exchange seems stable, at least for now. There is no reason for me to not go.”

“How long would you me gone?”

“About a week and a half.”

Bruce observed Dick’s face for a moment, and a small ghost of a smile was on his face as he noticed the slight worry on his young protégé’s face.

“And…I’ll have to manage the _other_ stuff by myself too?”

Dick didn’t know why he had a sudden uneasiness to stay in Gotham all by himself. He’d done it before in the past, where Bruce had to go on a business trip for _two months_ and Dick had no worries taking care of the _other_ stuff.

“Alfred’s always here to help if you need any,” stated Bruce. “I’m leaving on Thursday night.”

Dick nodded, and it took him a moment, but he finally accepted that he wouldn’t have his mentor by his side to figure this murder case.

Oh well, he did like a challenge.

* * *

 

After enduring a gruelling 7-hour day of school, Nico stumbled into his studio apartment in a huff, sighing tiredly as he threw his school bag across the room and flopped himself on his bed. He had Maths _and_ Physics that day, as if just plain linear equations weren’t hard enough for his dyslexic brain to understand. Rolling over, he suddenly felt something round and hard digging into his side, along with the sound of scrunching paper.

Arching his back to take it out, Nico discovered that it was actually the same brown envelope Hecate was about to show him during his dream-vision from the night before. He opened the flap of the envelope, and grunted when something shiny and bronze fell out of it and hitting him square in the eye.

Grumbling and sitting up, Nico held the bronze pocket watch up to the light to see better, and studied it. There was a swirling-type pattern on the back, and Nico pushed the bumps around to find the button that would open the watch. Holding the lid closer to his eyes, he discovered that the grooves were actually letters engraved on the inside. It took the demigod a while, but finally, he could make out the word ‘Gold’ in capital letters and the numbers ‘1856’. Nico figured it must’ve been the year it was made, but the thing he didn’t understand was why the word _Gold_ was engraved on the inside. It clearly wasn’t made of Gold, as the chain and surrounding case was slightly rusted and copper in colour.

After pocketing the watch, he then pulled out the sheet of paper from the envelope, and discovered it was an archived section of an old newspaper; its released date read: 15th March, 1896. The horrible curved and fancy letters of the headline was near impossible for the dyslexic teen to read, and the short article was plain torture, but Nico tried his best and had made out the first two sentences within the span of half an hour.

_GOLD IS AT IT AGAIN!_

_Millionaire Cyrus Gold is at it again! Even the Waynes weren’t immune to Gold’s charm, as the billionaire Marcus Wayne himself signs five-year-contract for…_

And that was all Nico got up to before his head started throbbing. But he had read enough to make sense of the pocket-watch. It belonged to Cyrus Gold, probably some rich businessman or merchant from the 19th century. From the black and white photo of the two men shaking hands, Nico studied each man closely. One wore a posh and fancy suit styled in the fashion of the 1800s. The other man also wore a tuxedo that screamed luxury, his hair gelled back and a pocket-watch dangling from his belt. He deduced that that must’ve been Gold, and was about to attempt to read the newspaper for the second time when his stomach growled.

Pulling himself up, Nico nearly tripped over his daggers that were thrown carelessly around his apartment as he tried to access the fridge. Kicking them aside, he opened it, and retrieved a jug of orange juice and one of the ten containers inside. Hecate had stocked the fridge with containers of food, also managing the electricity and water of the apartment. Nico briefly wondered why the goddess would be so… _kind_ to him, but then he decided it didn’t matter. He sat down on the ground and opened the container, the smell of curry hitting his face as the steam rose.

Hecate was the goddess of magic after all, so Nico wasn’t that surprised when he discovered that the curry was warm even when he had just gotten it out of the refrigerator. Eating as if he hadn’t seen food in days, Nico then reached out and pulled the map of Gotham in front of him. It was a Wednesday night, which meant that he had nothing to do as Hecate had told him not to go to Slaughter Swamp until Friday. Mulling over what to do, Nico then remembered the tomb back in Cathedral Square. He still hadn’t figured _that_ mystery out yet, nor did he figure out what the deal was with the bloody-apartment. _And then there was also that mud-thing_ , his mind reminded him as he threw the now empty container into the bin.

No longer bored, the Son of Hades quickly changed into his black-camouflage pants and black t-shirt, the one with the sword and skull on it as he pulled on his black cloak. Strapping one dagger to his belt and one more on his thigh, Nico double-checked that he was wearing his sword-ring, before taking a deep breath, and pressed his hands to the wall, comforting darkness surrounding him as he shadow-travelled back to Cathedral Square.

* * *

 

Dick sighed as he slumped back into his desk-chair. He had finished his homework, and all of the three assignments that were not even due until the last week of term. To say the teen was bored out of his mind was an understatement. He had spent the last hour watching Alfred help pack Bruce’s things for Tokyo, and Bruce himself had told Dick that he, for the first time, needed an early night. The billionaire-playboy, however, did not specify that _Dick_ needed an early night, however, and the thirteen-year-old knew immediately that his adopted father had indirectly given him permission to go on patrol by himself that night. Sliding off the chair, Dick then headed towards the hearty living room of Wayne Manor, and pulled out the correct book from the shelf that would make the door of the grand-father unlock. Pulling it open, Dick glanced back, to see Bruce giving him a slight nod before he stepped into the hidden elevator down to the Batcave.

After suiting up into his costume, Robin used this time to himself to actually sit on the chair in front of the Bat-computer. The seat was almost always occupied, and Batman had never let the Boy Wonder himself to actually sit on it, let alone touch the Bat-computer. After listening out for any police-reports and finding nothing, Robin sunk back into the chair in boredom. It was a strangely quiet night; with nothing more than a few robberies that policemen took care of before Robin could even find his keys to the R-bike. And he briefly actually considered going back upstairs to call Wally or something for a chat when an idea came to him. Quickly entering the correct access codes, it wasn’t long before a large digital map of Gotham appeared before Robin’s eyes. A red dot flashed once, twice before it started to ping. A smirk crossed his features as he then downloaded the map and tracker signal onto his wrist-computer. Robin then headed towards the R-bike as he pressed a button on his remote to open the bay doors. He was determined to find out what on Earth Klarion the Witch Boy was doing at Cathedral Square.

* * *

 

Nico circled the tomb for the third time round, eyes never leaving the large and weathered stone as his robe fluttered in the light breeze. His hood was over his head as he knelt down to take a closer look at the now rusted but once bloody lines on the rock. He reached out his fingers and traced the three scratches on the tomb, it looked almost like a cat had made the marks, but Nico then thought about the possibility of a cat wandering into the graveyard. It was possible, in a crowded city like Gotham.

In order for Nico to figure out who this grave belonged to, he would have to summon the spirit from the Underworld, he then headed forth and shadow-travelled towards the nearest McDonald’s. Needless to say, Nico found it difficult to contain his laughter at expressions from the people inside the fast-food restaurant when he had walked in, fully hooded and cloaked. He wondered what the people were thinking as he sauntered up to the counter and asked for a Happy Meal.

A smirk on his lips as he returned to Cathedral Square, Nico then headed towards the grave. Using his dagger as a shovel, he quickly dug a small pit and emptied the contents of the Happy Meal into it. He began chanting, and because of the concentration behind the ritual to summon a spirit, the presence of another human entering the empty Cathedral Square was unnoticed.

* * *

 

Robin climbed off his R-bike, locking it with bullet-proof layer as he reached into his utility belt to put his keys back. But what his fingers touched inside the pocket of his belt was something round and small. Pulling it out, Robin studied it carefully, mentally scolding himself for forgetting to give this piece of evidence that he had found at Theon Rykel’s tiny office-like box at Amusement Mile. He looked inside the ring when he felt grooves on the inside, and discovered the word ‘ _Gold_ ’ was engraved on the inside. Bemused, Robin simply slipped the ring back into his belt as he continued onwards to Cathedral Square.

* * *

 

“Eat.” commanded Nico to the spirit before him.

The near-transparent ghosts bowed before kneeling down in front of the Ghost King, eating the Happy Meal on the ground before he stood. The ghosts were now more solid, though still translucent as features began to form on each of the ghosts’ face.

“Name?” said Nico, to the first.

“Simon Rykel.”

Nico narrowed his eyes, _who did this man have to do with Gold?_ Nico gestured for the ghost to keep going, knowing that the spirit would understand as it then began to tell Nico its life story.

“I was sixty-seven when I died of lung cancer. I was a carpenter, started it when I dropped out of high school. I had a son, Theon Rykel.”

The ghost then gestured to the ghost next to him, a ghost who looked younger than his father.

“I am Theon Rykel. I died just two weeks ago.”

“Who killed you?”

The ghost of Theon frowned, “I canot recall, sir. I was at home, and then the next thing I remember was paying Charon at the DOA.”

“And where was this home of yours?” asked Nico.

“I cannot remember the address, sir. But I can tell you that _that_ ,” Theon pointed at the rusty marks on the tomb, “is my blood.”

The ghost seemed calm as he said this, and Nico was thankful that these two ghosts were content with wondering the Fields of Asphodel, whilst Nico also knew that some ghosts would still be distressed about being dead, some having taken centuries to get used to the idea. At least that was what the head guard of the Fields of Asphodel had told him when he had went to check on the security of the Underworld just a few weeks prior to getting this mission.

Nico was about to ask them if they knew a Cyrus Gold, that is, until he heard the rustling of bushes behind him as the breeze picked up. But that wasn’t what startled him, however, as he turned and froze in his interrogation. He could feel the presence of another person approaching him from behind. He slowly reached for his daggers, ready to strike them down.


	7. Chapter 7

Robin gracefully leaped over the rusted fence, doing a double somersault in mid-air while he was at it and landed on the damp grass ground as silent as a cat. He quietly wandered around the graveyard while tapping away on his wrist computer. From what the tracker-signal said, Klarion should be just on the other side of the graveyard as he then headed toward the area. Warily, the Boy Wonder took slow and cautious steps as he could hear faint talking in the distance.

_Wait…talking?_

Using tombstones to help for cover, Robin crouched down and approached the sound. He could see a figure in a jet black cloak, their hood pulled over their head. That was when he noticed that the talking had ceased.

* * *

 

It seemed impossible, but Nico stiffened even more as his ears prickled when he heard the crunching of dry twigs and leaves from behind him. Daggers at the ready, Nico made sure that his hood pulled up tightly before whirling around within a blink of an eye, and was onto the person within an instant. The person was faster than he thought he was, and a blur of red and black flashed before Nico’s eyes before he saw a flash of silver.

He was aware that his hood hid most of his face with the help of thickening the shadows, but Nico knew that it wouldn’t last if his hood was pulled down, so he desperately thought of a way to hide his face as he leaped over the silver pole that the red-and-black person wielded and dashed towards the fog, in order to distance himself. His mind worked as fast as his legs did as the Son of Hades racked his brain to remember _something_ , anything to help him.

And that was when he remembered… Hades had once told him that shadows were like shape-shifters.

They could form anything out of nothing but darkness; that they were tools of deception. But something else…that shadows could also form solid objects if need be, much like Hades’ Helm of Darkness was actually just made of pure shadows. Nico remembered Hades telling him of the many things a Son of Hades could do. No matter if the god himself was an Olympian or not, he was still one of the big three most powerful gods. Whilst children of Zeus were said to have powers over the winds, summon lightning and overall very powerful, and while children of Poseidon were proven to have powers over the sea, control over water and the ability to speak fish, the powers of children of Hades were not all written down. In fact, Nico thought that children of Hades seemed to most powerful over Zeus and Poseidon, and it was not out of bias either. Maybe he couldn’t fly, or maybe he couldn’t breathe underwater, but he could walk among the world of the shadows and summon the dead, call spirits from their eternal rest to have chit-chats, and from what Hades had told him, form objects out of darkness.

Nico stopped his sprinting across the graveyard, vaguely aware of the person slowing down behind him and yelling at him to put his hands up. He pictured something that would help him cover his identity, a mask perhaps, and called out to the shadows. He could feel the skin on his arms tingle as he felt power wash over him, and a sudden breeze blew over him and he knew it wasn’t because of the _swish_ of the other person’s cape, which Nico had realised was the Boy Wonder himself. Praying to the gods it would work, Nico let his daggers drop to the ground, raising his hands in the air as he stared at Robin’s bo-staff crackling with electricity, just millimetres from his chest.

“Hood down.” Robin commanded.

Nico gulped, slightly nervous before pulled his hood down, intentionally brushing his fingers over his face as he did so. He was surprised when he felt something hard and cold on his face, but it felt like there was nothing there as he realised it had worked; he had successfully formed a mask out of shadows.

“Mask off.” barked Robin.

A memory of the Stolls successfully getting away with a prank through impressive acting skills suddenly formed in Nico’s mind, and the teen made up his mind of how to handle the situation and he hoped he was a good at acting.

“I c-cant.” Said Nico, pitching his voice to sound scared.

Robin narrowed his eyes to slits as he reached out and all but yanked Nico’s mask down, or, rather, tried to.

“How is it stuck?” the young detective asked.

“I used my dad’s super glue, sorry!” said Nico, surprised that the voice that came out sounded more like a nine-year-old boy who’d just been caught for stealing lollies.

“Why did you come here?” asked Robin, lowering his bo-staff and his expression softening slightly when he took in Nico’s tone.

“I s-saw you, Robin! I’ve always wanted to know what it felt like to be a hero so I…er…followed you.”

Robin sighed, groaning inwardly as he realised it was one of _those_ situations; situations where he was followed by another fanboy.

“It’s late. I’m taking you home.” He sighed, and Nico noticed his tired stature.

“N-no! Um…I mean…I can go home myself, I don’t live far from here.” said Nico, praying that he didn’t sound too frantic when said that.

“I d-didn’t mean to get I your way, Robin. I am _so_ sorry for this. I promise I’ll be good and go back home to my dad.”

Fortunately, Robin only nodded, seemingly not suspicious at all.

“Okay. Make sure you get home, and if anyone bothers you, just yell and I’ll be there in an instant.” said Robin.

Nico nodded obediently, and was suddenly confused as to why Robin had grown so tired suddenly and how he didn’t even mention the daggers. Something felt off, wrong, as Robin brought his gloved hand up to massage his temples; the Son of Hades had at least expected _the_ Robin, who was said to have been trained by one of the world’s greatest detective would be more cautious. Not that Nico was really complaining though.

Turning around, Nico thought he had gotten off, when Robin suddenly asked: “What’s your name?”

Nico froze mid-step, swallowing nervously before blurting out:

“Jackson Chase.”

Silence was all he got, so Nico turned slightly to see that Robin had collapsed completely. _What the fuck is this now_? And that was when he noticed a figure amidst the fog, approaching them.

“Well, well, well. I must say I did not expect him to be so careless.” They smirked, their voice sounded scratchy and high-pitched, almost like the voice of a whiney little kid whose voice had gone coarse from yelling.

“Aren’t you glad that mean little bat isn’t here, Teekl?”

The fog departed, and Nico froze when he saw who had come. His skin was white as chalk, with talon-like fingernails. His black tuxedo matched the colour of his hair that was fashioned like devil’s horns, and his face was sharp and cruel. Red pupils reflected the crimson colour of blood, and a sinister smile was stretched over razor-sharp teeth. The, well, _whatever_ it was, hadn’t noticed Nico yet, for he was too busy talking to the orange cat by his feet as he came closer to examine the heap that was the Boy Wonder; who, in turn, was sprawled on the ground, unconscious. That was when the…person looked up.

“And who is this? A new _hero_?”

The thing that looked a bit like a human version of a Fury studied Nico, and said Son of Hades didn’t move a muscle.

“What are _you_ called? Some other pathetic name to show off your pathetic powers? Pshhh, you humans were never ones for creativity.” It sneered.

For a moment, there was a strange and awkward silence in which Nico had no idea what to do, as judging from this thing’s demeanour, he didn’t fancy picking a fight, but Nico could not bring himself to help Robin and defend the unconscious boy from this…thing. It wasn’t like he was a hero or a villain. Sure, he may be one of the heroes of Olympus, The Ghost King, the fearsome Son of Hades and veteran of the Second Titan War, but in this world, this _mortal_ world, he was merely a visitor. Heck, he didn’t even belong in this _century_ , having learned that his birth year was sometime during the 1940s.

“Well?” said the thing, looking bored.

Well, Nico couldn’t exactly tell him his real name, Hades would probably kill him for telling _anyone_ his real name when he wasn’t at school.

“Uh…Ghost King.” he stated, his voice slightly confused and unsure.

That was one of his real titles, not a hero name.

 _It’s not like you’re a superhero anyways_ , said a voice in his mind.

“Ghost King, really? What, do you control light shows to pretend to raise the dead? Kneel down over graves and chant the dead’s name to talk to them? Pray to Hades or whatever you humans call the ‘god of death’ for powers?”

Nico’s eyes flashed when he heard this, anger suddenly flowing through his veins at the devil in front of him.

“What did you say?” he hissed.

The thing had insulted him and his father, and he was going to pay.

“Insulting a god can give you a one-way ticket to the Fields of Punishment you know.” growled Nico, his hands curling into fists as he suddenly felt obligated to defend his father.

“A god? You believe in those silly stories?”

What aggravated the half-blood the most, was that the _thing_ seemed amused at his anger; it had this look in its eye, like how a titan would look down at mortals.

“And who might _you_ be? Some kid dressed in makeup and a costume to look scary? I need your name, kid, so I can tell my father.” said Nico.

“I am Klarion, Lord of Chaos, and whoever your father is, I’ll kill him after I kill you.”

Nico smirked then, “Funny thing about that, you can’t kill a god.”

Twisting his ring, Nico’s trusty Stygian Iron sword expanded into its full size. He placed his hand over the hilt of the blade, and the key of Hades glowed. That was when Klarion stepped back, and actually had a fearful look on his face for the first time.

“T-the sword of Death.” He mumbled, staring at it in fear, before his eyes flicked over to Nico who wielded it when a dark glare on his face that matched the midnight black iron of his sword.

“Where did you steal that, _Ghost King_?” sneered Klarion, his arms raised as if he planned to take the sword away.

“It’s _mine_.” Nico smirked.

“You know who I _really_ am? I am Nico di Angelo, the only living Son of Hades, and I believe you have an appointment when my father.”

Before Klarion could blink, Nico had leaped himself over the unconscious Robin, and raised his sword to land a heavy slash at Klarion’s head. The witch boy teleported away just in time, and red energy crackled on his finger-tips as he sneered at Nico.

“So you’re a half-blood, and here I thought they were mere stories about how they ruin everyone’s plans.”

Klarion raised his hands, and red bolts of lightning shot towards Nico, who jumped over them just in time. Nico glanced backward toward the pile that was once a tall and large tree, now reduced to a pile of splinters, and gulped when he realised that it could’ve been _him_.

“Son of Hades, all you can do is wield a special sword and say empty threats, how disappointing.”

Nico growled, and had a plan to shadow-travel behind Klarion and kill him there, when a low groan came from the ground. Both Nico and Klarion froze when Robin moaned in pain again, seeming to be waking up.

“I look forward to meet you again in time, ‘son of Hades’” Klarion mocked the last part, and Nico was tempted to just cut his head off right then and there, but the witch boy was already gone.

The demigod barely had time to turn his sword back into a ring, when Robin stirred again.

_Shit._

Sprinting into the fog of the graveyard, Nico didn’t even turn back as he ran towards the side of the Cathedral, where the shadow of a tree was and shadow-travelled away as far as he could.

* * *

 

Nico trudged into Italian the next morning, still in a rotten mood over the fight the night before. _That little bitch. How_ dare _he insult Hades? I’ll show him. I’ll fucking wipe that sneer of his face, and then I’ll get a few ghouls to kick his ass before I take his soul to Hades by—“_ Mr. di Angelo. It appears you’re late again.” Ms. Brown scolded from her desk.

“The bell rang just a moment ago.” said Nico, giving her a dirty look.

“Young man, I seem to recall you were _not_ in the class room when it rang, rather, just outside the door.”

Nico clenched his jaw to attempt to keep from yelling profanities at the woman, before he nodded stiffly.

“Sorry, Ms.” He said.

“That is your final warning. We expect you to be punctual here at Gotham Academy. Any more offences and I will send you off to the principal.” she screeched.

Something about this lady seemed off, and Nico knew, but he couldn’t exactly stab her in class to see if she was a monster or not.

“It will not happen again, Ms.” he replied instead, before sauntering towards the back of the room where Dick sat, who smirking at him despite the dark circles under his eyes.

“Long night?” asked Dick.

“My neighbours wouldn’t stop yelling at each other until three.” lied Nico smoothly.

“You?”

“I was doing my maths assignment.” Dick said, although that was not the reason.

The _real_ reason for the boy’s fatigue was because he had woken up at home, still in his uniform at midnight, to face a worried Bruce and Alfred. Apparently, Roy Harper was just around the area when he spotted the R-bike.

He was about to pass when he saw something explode at Cathedral Square a few blocks away, but when he got there, there was no one except for a barely conscious Robin on the ground. Dick had been shocked, and a little nervous about the whole ordeal, having no memory of collapsing at all. He’d just remembered going into Cathedral Square, with the intention of hunting down…someone before he ran into… _someone_ and fainted or something. Bruce had checked his equipment, even his mask to see if anyone triggered the tasers hidden on Robin’s domino mask in case someone were to try to take it off, but nothing was missing. No one touched his mask and his equipment were all there.

Dick was still deep within his thoughts, when suddenly, Ms. Brown slammed her hands on the table in front, startling nearly half the class who weren’t paying attention to whatever bullshit she was droning on about.

“You will all be paired up for this assignment. Pick you partners out of this box.”

She held up a plastic box with strips of paper on the inside, the names of everyone in the class. So, one by one, everyone got up to see who was their partners, and it wasn’t long before it was Dick’s turn. He got up, strode to the front of the room and picked the name on the top.

“Nico.” he said, a smile to the other boy who merely shrugged.

“Okay then.” Was all Nico uttered.

Returning to his seat, Dick didn’t miss the disappointed look on some of the students’ face when they realised they didn’t get the chance to be partners with the famous Bruce Wayne’s son, because doing a home-done partnered assignment meant having the opportunity to go to the other’s home, and no matter how rich the parents of these teens were, it was practically everyone’s dream to go to Wayne Manor.

Not that Dick understood why though, seeing as the Manor was old and boring on the inside…unless if you counted the hidden arsenal of the Dark Knight underneath the building.

Once everyone had their partners, Ms. Brown paced the room.

“This assignment will be due a week before the Christmas holidays, and I expect no late hand-ins. If you do not hand in your assignment on the set date, each day after will have 5% of your final mark deduced. Is that clear?”

The class nodded, Ms. Brown dismissed the students with a wave of her hand when the bell rang.

“So, I guess we’ll start today? Do you have any plans this afternoon?” asked Dick.

“No, I don’t think so. But do you mind if we started at your place first? My mum doesn’t like to have visitors without me telling her first, ‘cause you know…she likes to be clean.” said Nico, lying through his teeth.

Dick nodded, however, and agreed.

And that was how Nico found himself standing in front of the large double doors of the huge mansion. The half-blood had to tip his head back all the way in order to see the tip of the roof, and he swore the house was probably taller and bigger than the throne room of the gods on Mount Olympus. Dick, beside him, merely smirked at his expression before pressing the doorbell. Commissioner Gordon was on his break at the GCPD, so he decided to pick Barbara up and gave Nico and Dick a ride.

The heavy door swung open, and Dick was surprised to see Bruce standing there.

“Dick.” he greeted with an easy smile.

“Hey Bruce, I brought a friend over, hope that’s okay. We’re doing an Italian project together.”

Bruce nodded with a smile, “Yeah, of course.”

He opened the door wider and stepped to the side, and Nico finally tore his eyes off the detail of the walls of the manor and turned to Bruce.

“I’m Bruce Wayne.” said the billionaire, holding a hand out to the boy.

Nico took it and shook, deciding to be polite.

“Nico di Angelo.”

Glancing up at Bruce’s face only briefly before Dick tugged on his arm.

“Alfred made cookies, you have to try them.” he exclaimed, before leading Nico towards the kitchen.

Bruce kept his smile up until the boys were gone, before the calculating look of wonder appeared on his face. He _swore_ he’d seen Nico’s face before…somewhere…on a newspaper, perhaps. He’d never heard of the surname di Angelo, but Nico’s parents had probably gone to some of his charity balls. _That’s probably where I’d seen him_ , thought Bruce as he headed back into his study to do some last minute documents before his flight to Japan for tomorrow morning.


	8. Chapter 8

“So…all we need to do is write an oral presentation about an interesting mythological story?” asked Nico.

“Pretty much.” clarified Dick, sighing as he put the piece of paper back down on the table.

The two teens were sitting around the desk in Dick’s room, a plate that once held cookies was on the table, with nothing but a few crumbs left. Nico glanced out the window, and saw that the sun was already set, turning the sky orange and purple.

“It’s getting late, I better go soon.” said Nico.

“You want a ride? Alfred can take you.”

“Uh…it’s okay. I can walk home.”

“You can stay for dinner if you want.”

“No thanks, my mum wants me home.”

“Wait a second, I don’t remember you calling your mum about coming to my place. Does she know you’re here?”

“Oh…um…no, but she normally works late and doesn’t come home until dinner time. My dad makes the food, and he would probably just assume I was at the library or something.”

Dick perked up slightly.

“The library? Huh, I thought you were dyslexic.”

 _Oh fuck._ “No, I don’t actually do much there. It’s my sister who goes there all the time, so normally I just go there with her.”

“How old is she?”

Nico swallowed nervously, calculating what Bianca’s age would be if she wasn’t in Elysium right now.

 _You idiot, she was a hunter!_ “Nineteen.” He said, hoping Dick would stop interrogating him.

“Okay. I’ll get Alfred to call a cab for you, because it’s getting dark and you shouldn’t walk on the streets by yourself here in Gotham.”

Nico refrained the urge to roll his eyes, but nodded with what he hoped to be gratitude.

“Thanks.” He said.

“Back to the assignment, what topic do you want to do?” asked Dick.

“We can do an interesting story from the history of Ancient Greece.” stated Nico.

“You mean Greek mythology?” asked Dick, and Nico nearly cringed at the word ‘mythology’, listening out for any anger thunder rumbles from Zeus.

Fortunately, Nico didn’t hear any.

“Yeah.” He said.

“Which story then? Something from the story of Hercules maybe?”

Nico groaned inwardly at this; _of course_ Hercules would be the first choice when talking about Greek ‘mythologies’.

“No I was thinking about Achilles’ heels actually.” stated Nico, a memory of Percy trying to walk into the River Styx, only to end up falling face-first into the water and nearly dissolving, surfaced in Nico’s mind.

“Alright then, I’ll get my laptop to start research. Do you want to use my desktop?”

 _No, because it would send a notification to every single monster within a hundred kilometre radius on where I am_ , “Uh…I don’t need to research, I know the story off my heart. My sister used to read me those kind of…um… _stories_ , I suppose, when I was younger.” said Nico, after seeing Dick’s raised brow.

“But we still need to know other things, I mean, how did Achilles’ _get_ his invulnerability in the first place?”

“His mother dipped him in the River Styx when he was a baby, holding Achilles’ foot while doing so, thus, creating a thumb-sized weakness on his heel.”

Dick seemed slightly amused at this.

“Huh. And here I thought _I_ was the nerd.”

* * *

 

Friday passed in a blur, and soon, Nico found himself in his apartment, gearing himself up for Slaughter Swamp. The name itself sounded dodgy, so Nico decided on wearing his cloak instead of his Aviator’s jacket. He laid out his six Stygian iron daggers on his bed, his skull ring along with it as well as a packet of ambrosia and a canteen of nectar.

Nico strapped one dagger to his thigh first, slipping one in his boot and two more on his belt. Sliding the last two blades up his sleeves and slipping his ring on, his thoughts drifted to what he to expect at the swamp. A monster? A god/goddess? A _titan_? Surely, Hecate had sent him there for an important reason relating to his mission. Perhaps the so-called ‘necromancer’ was there; Nico sure hoped so. It would bring his whole mission to an end quickly, which would also mean that he would not have to do the gods’ forsaken Italian assignment with Dick, nor the physics test he was expected to take in a week’s time.

He checked that his daggers were hidden and in place, before turning and headed into the bathroom. Nico turned off the lights and concentrated, imagining a mask on his face as he called out to the shadows. When the lights were back, most of his face was covered in a black, hard and cold gladiator’s mask. He’d expected something the resembled half a Greek helm that he was used to at Camp half-blood, but it wasn’t like he was complaining; he thought the gladiator mask on his face was pretty damn cool.

Pulling up his hood, Nico doubled checked that his weapons were in place, before picking up the map of Gotham City and looked for Slaughter Swamp. It was on the edge of town, around the border with the region of the whole area coloured light green on the map. The closest actual building was Gotham’s power centre, with a grey line that represented a road going from the power centre all the way out of town. This same road also happened to wound around the swamp area. Sighing in slight annoyance, Nico realised what he would have to do to go to such a secluded area. He went through the cupboards, and found a zip-lock bag of mortal money as well as drachmas, so he decided to take fifty dollars and four coins before departing.

* * *

 

“Slaughter Swamp?” asked the taxi driver, looking at Nico from the driver’s seat with uneasy eyes.

“Yes. I believe the meter is already running, and I’d rather _not_ have to pay extra for you to figure out where to go.” Nico hissed, somewhat menacingly.

As the taxi driver pulled out of the taxi lane, Nico couldn’t help but crack a small smirk beneath his hood. He supposed he _did_ look menacing, with his hooded face and dark clothes; the taxi driver probably wasn’t used to having to drive around creepy thirteen-year-olds who hid his face with shadows and had such pale skin as Nico had.

Forty-five minutes later, the driver finally pulled the taxi to a stop in front of a rotted sign that had a spaghetti meal of letters Nico could not decipher, nor was he bothered to read. He assumed he was at least _outside_ the swamp area, so he threw the driver two twenties before stepping out of the cab. Needless to say, the driver drove away without a second glance.

Nico turned, and stood for a moment to take in the swamp-infested biome before him. Trees that were not even considered tall (considering the _very_ tall trees he’d seen at Camp half-blood). The mud on the ground was damp, with moss-covered rocks scattered around everywhere. Green moss also covered the tree, and the humidity in the air made the atmosphere feel as if it had just rained. Nico now understood why the man had driven away in such haste, after _really_ seeing what Slaughter Swamp looked like at eight-thirty at night and with winter right around the corner.

The sky was dark already, the stars barely visible with the light of the city mere kilometres away, but the moon seemed to be shining as bright as the moon that night; its light casting eerily shadows of the trees that only seemed to emphasise the darkness of the swamp. Nico took a cautious step forwards, expecting _something_ to happen, but nothing did.

Realising he was being ridiculous, Nico straightened up, before marching straight into the trees, into the darkness that seemed to engulf him whole.

 _For gods’ sake, you’re a son of Hades and you’re afraid of the dark?_ Nico snorted when the little voice in the back of his voice chided him. Of course not, the half-blood treated darkness as an old friend.

As he walked deeper and deeper into the trees, a hand on his daggers strapped to his belt, he thought about the name of the place. Why would this swamp be called ‘Slaughter Swamp’?

 _Maybe it’s because a lot of people were actually slaughtered here,_ he mused.

He could feel many bones beneath his feet, although most were over hundred years old. Nico was so into his thoughts when he realised that he had arrived in front of a pond. The surface of the water was coated in green algae, with small movements in the water. He turned, to look for the path he came from, but only saw raw mud everywhere.   
_Great, I’m lost_.

Suddenly, a light drizzle had begun, and Nico looked up into the now clouded sky in confusion.

_Since when had it been cloudy?_

He remembered clearly that there was not a cloud in the night sky mere moments ago, and with his demigod eyes and being adapted to the dark, Nico _knew_ there was no way the clouds could’ve gotten there so quickly. He looked around him as the rain steadily got heavier, silently thanking Hecate that his black cloak was enchanted to be able to withstand even the most extreme weather conditions and was also water and wind proof. Nico closed his eyes to sense for any dark magic around, and then he realised: he was standing right at the stop where necromancy had been performed just a few hours before he had arrived. However, before he could try to sense if there was anyone around, it had started pouring. Bucket-sized quantities of water pelted down on him like bullets being shot down from the heavens, and a large bolt of thunder crackled over him.

 _So Zeus is just having a hissy-fit, of course_ , he thought, when realisation drawn on him.

Nico quickly cleansed the place of dark magic, and began to think of reasons _why_ anyone would want to cast necromancy here at a swamp. He was just pacing about, with the rain hammering down around him, when his boot stepped on something that did _not_ feel like a rock. He looked down, and saw a dark brown stick was buried in the ground. Frowning, Nico bent down, brushing the mud away with his fingers and yanked it out of the mud. In his hand was an ordinary shovel, made of metal and a wooden rod, but that was not the reason for the Son of Hades’ disturbed frown. _Someone dug here…_ He closed his eyes and concentrated hard, trying to sense any traces of bodies or skeletons, but the noise of the rain was too loud; concentrating was a nightmare.

Frustrated, Nico gritted his teeth and began digging, hoping to find _some_ sort of treasure box or something that would help. He had only dug barely half a metre when he suddenly felt something directly beneath him, several metres down in the ground. Dropping the shovel, Nico closed his eyes and focused entirely on the presence of bones beneath him, using all of his energy to pull the skeleton out of the ground and to not be distracted by the storm around him.

When he finally felt that the bones were on the surface, he looked down, vision impaired when he’d realised how much energy it actually took him to conjure up the skeleton. Nico quickly took a small bite of ambrosia, and instantly, his dulled senses were suddenly sharper. He’d expected to see a fully rotted skeleton in front of him, but was confused and even a little angry when there was only two small, pebble sized bones. He picked it up gingerly with his hand, and narrowed down that the bones were probably from a finger.

 _But where is the rest of the skeleton?_ He wondered, slightly disturbed by the fact that only two tiny finger bones were left.

He supposed the rest of the skeleton was probably too rotted with the algae and swamp bacteria, and had most likely turned to ashes, yet he couldn’t shake his unease when he thought of another reason why the full skeleton wouldn’t be here.

Nico glance back to the shovel on the ground… _could someone really…No…that’s ridiculous, how could someone dig ten metres down into the ground in a place like this?_ The half-blood knew that even if someone _did_ dig up the skeleton for whatever purposes, it would’ve been practically impossible, with the slippery mud and the pond so close by; the mud would’ve collapsed on top of them if they went as far as two metres down, let alone ten. Nico decided to that this was probably why Hecate had sent him here, to pick up these bones. Although it didn’t seem like much, to a Son of Hades, the bones were practically the jackpot for his mission. He realised that he’d have a lot of investigation to do now, as well as several trips to the Underworld to question some spirits. The rain had slowed finally to a light drizzle yet again, and just as he was about to shadow-travel back to his apartment, he heard a loud _splosh!_ of mud from behind him.

“Going home alone again, Jackson Chase?”

Nico realised he’d been followed, and turned to face the glaring face of Robin the Boy Wonder, electricity crackling on the tip of his bo-staff that was pointed at Nico’s chest for the second time in three days.


	9. Chapter 9

"I'd advise you to put your hands up and tell me the truth before I poke you with two-hundred volts of electricity." said Robin.

His memories of Cathedral Square had slowly come back to him over the past day; he still had no memory of what happened after meeting this apparent 'fan-boy', but remembered enough to know that he was probably lying.

"Who are you?"

Nico knew he was screwed. Robin must've figured out his lies, but there was no  _way_ in Tartarus he'd ever tell the Boy Wonder his real name and titles that normally came with it.

"I'm the Ghost King." he hissed, hoping to sound menacing. Robin narrowed his eyes and moved his bo-staff ever closer.

"Ghost King, huh?  _Very_ original." Robin rolled his eyes. "Why did you drug me, and  _how_?" he demanded.

"I didn't."

At that, Robin pulled his face into his signature smirk that was nearly as threatening as the bat-glare.

"If my dead grandma came back as a ghost and told me she wasn't one, she'd  _still_  lie better than you." Nico could only smirk at this,  _too true_ ;  _ghosts can't lie for shit_.

"Now, I apologise for this. As much as I enjoy hearing your lies,  _Ghost King_ , I'm afraid I'll have to arrest you for suspicious activities."

And with that, Robin jabbed his bo-staff straight at Nico's chest…only the boy was gone.

"Missed." hissed a voice beside him.

Robin spun around, his arms twisting his bo-staff in a defensive stance as he blocked the two flashes that were coming his way. His eyes couldn't follow the black blur in front of him, but his hands could.

Another flash and something that looked silvery in the light of the moon through the parting clouds came for his exposed sides. Robin ducked and back flipped away, managing to distance himself from the 'Ghost King' with a few metres. He gripped his bo-staff tightly as he studied the other boy, for real and carefully this time, taking everything to detail.

The 'Ghost King' wore black  _everything_ , it seemed; black army boots, black camouflage pants, and a black t-shirt beneath his black cloak. The hood casted a shadow over his face, blurring his features, but Robin knew from the last encounter that there was a black gladiator-like mask beneath that hood as well. The hilts of two daggers were clenched tightly in both of Ghost King's hands, and with the midnight black yet strangely metallic surface of the twenty centimetre blade, the daggers seemed to be glowing in the moonlight.

Something told Robin that this 'Ghost King' was not one of those wannabes' who named themselves to try to be a hero. The Boy Wonder had followed the tracking signal of whom he had thought to be Klarion, but it turned out to be this 'Ghost King' instead. He'd arrived at Slaughter Swamp shortly after it had first started raining, ad had walked into the swamp, only to see a crouched figure in the mud, digging like crazy. Robin was half tempted to stop the figure then and there as he'd assumed he was Klarion. Instead, however, he had perched on a tree and watched as the figure suddenly dropped the shovel and stood. The rain was hammering by then, yet the figure didn't move, and suddenly, Robin felt something rush over the swamp. The rain was still going at full force, but the Boy Wonder could  _feel_ the change in atmosphere as something powerful, and undoubtedly  _dark_  rushed over the whole area. When the feeling was gone, Robin had barely noticed that the figure had crouched down to pick up something off the ground, and that was when he decided to interrupt.

"If you turn around and pretend you didn't see me, we can avoid unnecessary bloodshed. You can just go back to whatever criminals you were going after while I mind my own business." stated Nico, slowly raising his daggers in case if Robin suddenly attacked him.

Robin laughed.

"'Avoid unnecessary bloodshed'? Haha, wow. You're lucky Batman isn't here at the moment, or else you'd be sleeping in a cell right now."

Robin then dashed forwards, slamming his bo-staff down at the Ghost King's head in an attempt to knock him out, but Nico managed to lift his daggers I time to intercept it with a loud  _clang!_

Heavy blows were dealt from both teens, Nico slashing while Robin spun his bo-staff to hit Nico at all angles, but the demigod dodged them all with ease, thanks to his ADHD. Adrenaline heavy in the air, both parties refused to back down, knowing that the consequence was either be thrown in a cell or slashed to bits.

Minutes and minutes passed, yet the blows were still hard until a loud  _cling!_ filled the air. Robin's bo-staff connected with Nico's left wrist, sending his dagger flying as well as a shockwave through his arm. The Son of Hades hissed in pain as he jumped back and clenched his wrist. Robin took a second to glance at the dagger that now lay metres away, then looked back to the Ghost King, as if daring him to go get it.

"Seriously, I don't want to do this the hard way." said Robin, and Nico noticed that the Boy Wonder was breathing as hard as he was; puffs of air from Robin's mouth was visible in the cold.

Slowly reaching down, Nico slid the dagger that was strapped to his thigh out of its confinement and clenched it in his hand. His wrist was throbbing, but he ignored it as he composed himself.

"Neither do I." and with that, Nico launched himself forwards yet again with a growl, leaping up and aimed a kick at Robin's chest.

Robin lifted his staff up to hook it around Nico's foot, hoping to drag him down to the ground, but the half-blood quickly dropped the dagger in his right hand to grab the staff and swung down, using both his feet the kick at Robin's ribs. The Boy Wonder was flown backwards into a tree, a sharp pain in his ribs that hit the tree. He hissed in pain as he stood, and saw the Ghost King approaching him.

"You're good." he smirked, leaning on his staff to catch his breath.

"Give up?" said Nico, pointing his daggers to Robin's chest.

In all honestly, Nico had actually realised that he couldn't  _actually_ hurt Robin with his daggers, as they were made of Stygian Iron, and Nico made this discovery when he had swiped the back of Robin's hand earlier. The blade should've cut through the glove and into the hand, but it had passed straight through the glove and flesh like thin air.

Robin studied the other boy, taking in his pale skin and heaving chest. He could've taken this boy down ages ago, with smoke bombs and even sonic bird-a-rangs in his utility belt, but Robin had wanted to see what this  _Ghost King_ could do. Robin raised his hands up in surrender, and Nico glared at him from beneath his hood before turning around and picked up his fallen dagger.

"Now!" yelled Robin, and suddenly, bright lights lit up around them.

Blue and red lights flashed everywhere, and silhouettes of the policemen that had surrounded the area were seen through the trees.

"Hands up." came a voice through a megaphone.

Nico cursed loudly as he saw all the guns pointed at him, as well as the helicopter above that had a spotlight shone on him. How did he not sense so many people here? He cursed in every language he knew at Robin who smirked at him from his place beneath the tree, and Nico knew he was so fucked… _unless_ …

Concentrating on every single black spot in the forest, Nico closed his eyes and focused on the  _dark_. He called out to the shadows, ordering them like a general would command a soldier, and focused solely on one thought:  _let them see the_ real  _dark_.

Darkness engulfed every policeman's vision, even Robin. It wasn't simply the dark the Boy Wonder had experienced before, when there was a power outage. It wasn't dark like Batman's mood all the time. It wasn't dark like his room when he tried to sleep.  _No_. The darkness was thicker than night itself, fear and something a bit like  _evil_ chilled throughout Robin's bones as the world turned even colder than it was.

When his vision came back, the Ghost King was gone. The policemen staggered about, rubbing their eyes whilst some even screamed in terror. The radius where the Ghost King stood mere moments ago now had dead grass in his place. Commissioner Gordon stumbled through the trees, looking dazed and confused.

"Where did he go?" he asked. Robin just shook his head, his mind still in a slight frenzy as to what he'd just experienced.

"I…I don't know." He mumbled, his kneels wobbling slightly as he got to his feet.

"Who was that?" asked Gordon.

"He calls himself the Ghost King." said Robin.

"What'd he do?"

"A few things, but the reason I called for the squad was because he may be associated with demons from other dimensions."

"I think he is." said Gordon, rubbing his temples. "With what just happened…"

Robin nodded slightly as he ran his hand through his hair.  _Who was the_ Ghost King _?_ What powers did he have? Was he working for Klarion? The Light? More and more questions filled Robin's mind as he headed back to his R-bike, but he'd only walked a few metres when he saw something glint in the moonlight from the ground.

Looking down, Robin saw a twenty-five centimetre midnight black dagger in the mud, the blade was in a triangular shape. The hilt was carved delicately, yet there was no cross-guard or rain guard. The grip was forged in such a way so that the dagger wouldn't be easy to slip out of grip, and the pommel was in the shape of a black skull. "Commissioner?" said Robin, turning around with the weapon in his hands. "I think we've got a start."

* * *

 

Nico collapsed onto his bed, wrist throbbing, and head pounding as he scarcely pulled off his cloak and threw it to the ground. He hastily pulled his boots off, and threw them across the room. Just as he was about to black-out from exhaustion from causing the fiasco he'd caused earlier at Slaughter Swamp, he heard a faint, but definite beeping sound.

As the silence stilled around his room, the beeping grew louder. Forcing his eyes open, Nico dragged himself across the room to where his boots were, and turned them over. The soles of both of them were caked in mud, but something small and hard was stuck between one of the ridges of the bottom of the boot. Reaching for his dagger that was hidden inside the boot, he skewered the object out, and the tracking device blinked a bright red in the darkness if his room, as if mocking him for not noticing this. Immediately, Nico used the butt of his dagger, and crushed the tracking device until it was nothing but a few wires and metal parts.

Glaring at the pile as if it would magically reform itself (which, for all Nico knew, it probably could), the Son of Hades studied his equipment once more, before staggering back into his bed and sleeping as soon as his head hit the pillow.

* * *

 

"When did you die?"

Prisoner 34256 of the Fields of Punishment rubbed his ghostly chin, squinting his eyes in thought as he tried to remember the day of his death.

"June 6th, 1889."

"How?"

"I was walkin' down Main Street at the dead of night, deliverin' one o' them cigars to ma boss when I was clunked over the head with them baseball bats. That's the last thing I remember."

The heavy-accented man who stood a metre in front of Nico was still bulky, even as a ghost. The orange prisoner's jumpsuit was torn at the sleeves, giving Nico a clear view of numerous tattoos all over the man's bicep.

"Name?"

"Jimmy."

Nico stared at the ghost, impatiently waiting for Jimmy to continue, but the spirit shook his head.

"I can't remember my last name, sir, sorry."

Nico grunted,  _great, how was I going to find out anything about this guy if I don't know his last name?_

"Why are you in the Fields of Punishment?"

"Oh you know, I worked as a delivery guy for a while. Rich people demand for all sorts a' weird things that sheriffs hate, but ya gotta do whatcha' gotta do."

"Well, surely, I doubt Minos would put you in the Fields for just delivering whatever drugs there was in the 19th century. Your sentence shouldn't be any more than 200 years, and it's over that now. What else did you do?"

For a second, Jimmy's ghostly eyes darted away from Nico, instead, choosing to look and admire the trees and plants surrounding the pit he'd been summoned from. Nico had spent all of Saturday in his apartment, going over the newspaper and the pocket-watch, seeing anything he was missing on this case.  _Why would someone take the effort to summon dead ghosts from the 19th century?_  Sometime during that afternoon, Nico had mused to himself whether or not to get a trench coat and pipe to go with the detective work he was doing.

"I won't accept lies, Jimmy. If I find out you're lying to me, I won't hesitate to increase your sentence to two millennia's in the flaming chamber."

Now, Nico wasn't sure if it was possible, but Jimmy had managed to pale even more from his already ghostly white and grey skin.

"B-but, I promised that I'd take the secret to ma grave, sir."

Nico raised his eyebrow. "You're beyond your grave at Slaughter Swamp, and you have ten seconds to tell me the truth before I tell the ghouls to take chain you to flaming chamber 598."

The Son of Hades then proceeded to count out loud, and Jimmy looked nervous and flinched at every second, and just at Nico counted to nine, he relented.

"The skeleton you found was not mine." said Jimmy, and Nico stopped his counting.

"I swear to tha River Styx, I only did what I did 'cause o' ma' boss."

Nico gestured for Jimmy to go on, so the ghost shifted around for a little bit, before sighing.

"I killed Cyrus Gold, dumped his body in the swamp."

Nico raised his eyebrows for what seemed like the hundredth time in this interrogation.

"Who was your boss?"

"Rachel Rykel."

* * *

 

Monday morning was the time every student dreaded, Nico included. Dragging himself to homeroom, he barely got into the class room on time before the bell rang. Dick merely smirked at him from his seat when Nico dumped himself onto the seat next to the rich boy.

"You know, sleeping early might help."

"I can't when the fucking neighbours are being absolute bitches and won't stop bothering me."

Of course, Nico was not talking about his 'neighbours' being annoying. He was so fed up with the mission, with everything being complicated and confusing. He'd spent most of Sunday wondering how detectives still have their hair, seeing as Nico had pulled on his so many times in frustration when his mission still didn't make any sense.

"We have the rock-climbing trip tomorrow." said Dick.

"Hope you're slow 'cause I'm planning on keeping my record as the fastest in the class."

Now  _that_ was when it was Nico's turn to smirk.

"We'll see." said the demigod, already knowing whatever rock-climbing course their P.E. teacher was planning to take them to would be child's play compared to the lava walls at Camp half-blood.

Physics and Maths rolled by quickly, and soon, Nico found himself sitting in English with  _Oliver Twist_ opened out in front of him.

"Mr. di Angelo, please read the next paragraph." said Mr. Bron.

"Oily—"

" _Oliver_ ," corrected the teacher.

Nico cleared his throat.

"Uh, Oliver and N…Naoh?"

"And  _Noah_."

"Oliver and Noah had de…desenced?

" _Descended_."

Nico's head snapped up when he heard laughter around him, and saw the other students trying to stifle their laughs with the struggling Nico. He glared at them, and effectively shut them up.

"May I please use the restroom?" said Nico through gritted teeth.

Mr. Bron sent the teen a sympathetic look, which the half-blood would've snapped his neck over, before nodding.

Nico sighed as he closed the classroom door behind him and headed down the corridor to the nearest boy's bathroom. After washing his hands, he walked back out into the corridor, intending to make for his classroom when someone stepped into his way.

"Mr. di Angelo." screeched Ms. Brown's voice.

Nico stared down at the old hag.

"Sorry, Ms. I was just heading to class."

"Without a hallway pass? I'm afraid it is against the school rules to be wondering about the facilities whilst not in break or lunch."

"No, I was just—"

"Come with me." she said, already turning around to stop any further protests Nico had.

The half-blood sighed as he followed the stout old lady into an empty classroom; and it was then when he realised that it wasn't her office…and that the click he just heard was the door locking.

"I'm afraid your English lesson would have to wait, I mean, we  _both_  know how much you  _adore_ the subject."

_Shit. Not a good sign._

Nico took a step back and his hand flew to his sword-ring.

"Oh, don't look so surprised, half-blood. I thought you'd be smart enough to figure it out by now."

And with that, 'Ms. Brown's' dress and legs disappeared, a single, long serpent tail with scaly green skin replaced the spot. The monster's once old-lady clothes was replaced with a white tunic, her face turned far younger, and she could've passed off as beautiful, if not for the pointy and sharp fangs that were her teeth.

"You have been a  _bad_ child, Son of Hades, messing with a world you are not welcome in. So let me show you what happens to bad children."

The monster dashed forwards faster than Nico thought she would be, and the demigod barely had time to shadow-travel to the other side of the room. Tables and chairs toppled over in a loud crash, but Nico barely had time to register all the noise as he drew his sword.

"You're the Lamia." he said, realisation hitting him.

The Lamia snarled at him, baring her teeth as she slithered forth to try to eat him. He slashed at the monster's head, but she ducked and went for his legs. Nico jumped up in time and leaped over the monster, landing in a rather ungraceful manner behind her.

"I thought you died hundreds of years ago." He said.

The Lamia hissed.

"And I was told demigods were  _smart_."

She was just about to lunge yet again, when a banging came from the door.

"Open this door  _right now!_ " yelled a voice from the outside.

The monster grinned at him.

"We will meet again, demigod."

And with that, the Lamia disappeared in a column of fire, and Nico barely had time to change his sword back into a ring, and was just about to bolt when the door was kicked down.

"Nico?" said Dick, standing along his classmates and Mr. Bron who stared at Nico with open-mouths at the state the room and he was in.

The half-blood looked down at his tattered clothes, to the mess that was once a classroom.

"I can…explain?"

"You can explain to the principal." said Mr. Bron sternly, and Nico had to fight back the urge to send the Lamia to the deepest pits of Tartarus right there.


	10. Chapter 10

"…and he just leaped out of the window!" exclaimed Nico in an (probably) over-exaggerated surprised voice.

"So you're telling me, Mr. di Angelo, that an intruder broke in when you were on your way back from the bathroom to class, pushed you into the classroom and threatened you with a gun?"

"Yes, but when he heard people coming he just opened the window and fled."

"Mr. Bron, was the window opened when you entered?"

Nico's English teacher stroked his chin.

"I remember the cleaners had already opened the windows to air out the room."

The principal then turned back to Nico, eyeing him down. Nico shrunk back into his seat a fidgeted uncomfortably, but he kept his eyes to Principal Willet's, knowing that looking away would seem too suspicious. Suddenly, the door slammed open.

"What's this about an intruder?" asked Commissioner Gordon as he strode into the office, glancing at Mr. Bron and the principal, before his eyes flickered to Nico and he raised an eyebrow.

"Nico di Angelo, we meet again."

"You've met this young man before?" asked Mr. Bron.

"Most certainly. I gave him and Richard a ride home."

And Nico swore he could see the slight disappointment in Principal Willet's eyes at this; perhaps the man had hoped for Nico to have a criminal record or something, as an excuse to kick him from Gotham Academy. The half-blood snorted inwardly at this,  _if the students mind so much about the profits of their parents,_ of course  _the principal would be worse than them, especially how I'm on a scholarship._  After Willet relayed everything Nico told him yet again to Gordon, the police commissioner tilted his head thoughtfully.

"I will send a group to investigate this intruder."

A warning glare and a repeat of the school rules later, Nico strode through the hallways of the main reception building, and several of the students who passed him stopped and stared. The Son of Hades ignored them, and headed straight for the front doors. Lunch had just begun, and he intended to head for his locker when he ran straight into a blur of blonde and white.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" said a female voice.

Nico grunted and brushed himself off, before kneeling and picking up a book the girl dropped.

In permanent marker, a blur of black was scrawled on the front of the book. Nico stared at it for a moment, trying to read the name, even squinting to see if it helped, until the girl cleared her throat and he flinched out of his concentration.

"Oh, it's okay…um…"

"It's Artemis. Artemis Crock." She said.

He glanced up at her, and noticed how her blonde hair resembled Annabeth's in a way. Her face an Asian tint to it, and Nico guessed that she must've been a half Caucasian.

"Um, I better be on my way." she said, edging away from his intense obsidian black eyes.

The younger boy unnerved her, and it was pretty hard to intimidate Artemis, the Green Arrow's niece.

Nico shrugged and kept walking, and after grabbing his lunch, headed for Dick and Barbara who were sitting on the lawn talking while eating their lunches.

"Oh, hey Nico." said Babs, and Dick turned around so quickly Nico was surprised his neck didn't crack.

"What happened?" he said, his seemingly light tone seemed forced.

Nico frowned.

"An intruder came in, attacked me before jumping out the window."

"A 3-storey window? With no pipes or anything to climb off of? And no one saw this guy?" exclaimed Dick in a joking way, almost as if he was mocking Nico.

"Hey, I was there. You weren't. Don't go ape shit on me just cause some guy attacked me and you weren't there to see my ass getting kicked." said Nico, glaring at the other boy.

However, the demigod was actually surprised with himself whilst he was at the principal's office. He didn't think Mr. Willet would buy the story so quickly, nor the rest of the students and Mr. Bron.

"Okay okay, just settle down guys. Jeez. Nico's fine and dad's already sent some people to catch the guy."

 _Unlikely_ , thought Nico when he recalled how the Lamia had vanished in a column of fire. Dick and Nico glared at each other for a while, neither backing down nor surrendering. The tension in the air was so thick that Barbara had to whistle twice in their ears to get them to break away.

"Hello? Guys? I'm  _trying_ to tell you a case here." she said exasperatedly.

"Yeah Babs, we're listening." said Dick, glaring at his half-eaten sandwich while Nico fidgeted with his ring.

Dick had moved his eyes to the half-blood's actions, and found himself studying the ring intently. He  _swore_ he'd seen that ring before…somewhere.

"…Wayne Enterprises…"

Both Dick and Nico's heads snapped up when Barbara said this.

"What?"

Barbara rolled her eyes with a huff, but began her story yet again.

"There were two robberies last night. One had Wayne Enterprises and the other at S.T.A.R labs." stated Babs.

"What was stolen?" asked Dick, frowning at the possibilities if something  _important_ was stolen.

Babs shrugged, "No idea. Dad didn't say anything about that to me. Said it was confidential or something. But that's so not  _fair_ , I mean, I'm his daughter, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone other than you two."

And she then went on to say complain about how Commissioner James Gordon never tells her anything in detail. Neither Dick nor Nico was listening, however, when they both shared the same thought:  _the Italian project will have to wait._

* * *

 

"Room 790." said the nurse, and Robin thanked her with a nod, before heading for the elevator.

A surgeon was in the lift with him, and the man's eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw the Boy Wonder enter.

"R-robin?" he squeaked.

"One and only." smirked Robin, although he rolled his eyes inwardly at the reaction. It wasn't the first time he used the elevator with other people around.

The surgeon gawked at him for a moment, before taking out his phone when he got a message.

"Can I please take a picture? My daughter…she loves you."

Robin considered it for a moment, before replying with a sigh.

"Batman doesn't allow pictures…" he said, and disappointment was shown on the man's face. "But I guess I'll make this an exception." He said with a smirk, and needless to say, the surgeon would still have that grin on his face by the time he got home.

A  _ding!_ rang out, and the elevator slowed when it reached the seventh floor of Gotham City Hospital. Robin headed out with a wave to the surgeon, before heading down the corridor, in search of room 790. When he found it, there was a doctor standing outside, in a deep conversation with a nurse.

"How is he?" asked Robin.

Both the doctor and the nurse looked at Robin with surprised looks, before saying that their patient was in a stable condition. Robin nodded at this, and proceeded to enter.

"Dr. Stone?" he said as he entered.

A dark skinned man lay on the hospital bed, a bandage around his head and arm. Thick-framed glasses sat on his nose, and on his chin was a goatee. Next to him, a boy probably a year older than Robin sat by presumably his father and the he looked at the Boy Wonder in admiration when he entered.

"Yes, Robin?"

"What happened?"

Robin had already met Dr. Stone once before, when he had to deliver a meta-human's DNA to him.

"This man in a hood broke in just as I was locking up. He had chalk-white skin, shot some weird red energy things from his hands when he saw me. I took a few blows on my arms, and just as I was about to sound the alarm, he wanked me other the head with a fire extinguisher. Next thing I knew I was here."

"What did he steal?"

"A very dangerous and important serum. See, the experiment we were working on involved the scientists from Wayne Enterprises. The serum he stole was made of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells mixed in with things like Potassium Chloride, Iron-Sulfur protein, Cacodylic acid. It was going to be a break-through experiment to help with flesh-destroying diseases."

"What was it meant to do?" asked Robin.

"It was meant to be the answer to help patients who suffer from incurable diseases such as Peripheral Arterial Disease or something like Diabetic Foot Infections. The idea is that instead of having to amputate their limps, the Cacodylic acid in the serum would first kill off the bacteria, and fuelled by the Iron-Sulfur protein, stem cells and Potassium Chloride, it would replace the damaged cells with metallic properties."

"So pretty much, it replaces bacterial-damaged body cells with metal?"

"Yes." said the bioinorganic chemist.

Robin nodded his head in thought, before asking the ultimate question.

"Do you know what happened at Wayne Enterprises?"

Dr. Stone shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Robin. I've heard nothing."

"So what was the deal, as in, if the scientists at S.T.A.R labs worked with the ones at Wayne Enterprises, which side did what?"

"We were the ones to provide the chemicals that are hard to obtain, and Wayne scientists provided the stem cells for experimentation. There's a three metre by three metre tube at their lab, filled with the serum. We miscalculated the amount of it that was needed and ended up producing too much of the base serum. It's not as strong as the final one that was stolen last night, because it lacks the Iron-Sulfur protein and Cacodylic acid, but a large amount like that would be dangerous for human contact, and if touched by any sort of flesh, regardless if it's dead or living, could have drastic results."

Robin frowned at this, for this serum was beginning to sound more and more like it was taken from one of Dr. Frankenstein's diaries.

"Results like…?"

"Horribly mutated skin, permanent open wounds due to the mixed stem cells and acids messing up the blood cells, the list goes on."

The chilly feeling of dread and anxiety washed over Robin as he realised how serious the robbery was.

"Thank you, Dr. Stone."

"Anytime, Robin. Victor, say goodbye."

The boy stuttered out one, and Robin waved, before turning and headed out the door.

* * *

 

"Any idea where it could've gone?" asked the scientist.

"No. It's like the tube just vanished. See? It looks like a huge chunk of the wall had been ripped out of it."

"I wonder what Mr. Wayne will say about this,"

"Probably just shrug and pay for it. Like he always does."

The other, male scientist unlike the other snorted.

"I doubt he even understands what the word 'science' means, and I don't think he'll give two living  _shits_  about how dangerous this really is."

"Yeah, tell me about it. I mean, he's away in Tokyo for  _business_ reasons? Please, I bet he's just taken an interest in exotic women."

The two scientists continued to talk on about their annoyance with their boss, but they'd said all Nico needed to know. He became one with the shadows, and emerged from the rooftop of the Wayne Enterprises building, stumbling slightly. Eavesdropping by hiding in the shadows was a tiring way to get information, but it was the only way to bypass all the security and go in without being seen or detected by heat-sensors. After all, shadows had no body temperature. Though Nico knew he should never try doing that for a long period of time ever again; he remembered what his father had said once, about exceeding the limits of his powers.

' _If you shadow-travel too much, you could potentially_ be  _a shadow for the rest of your life, meaning that you will fade into nothing._ '

Nico shuddered at the thought; he still had  _way_ more things to do before fading away. And he was a half-blood; he didn't want to die because he was careless and abusive of his own powers, it would be like a wolf biting off his own foot and bleeding to death. The tired Son of Hades leaned up against a vent that stuck out of the roof, taking a moment to gather his surroundings. He took out the folded map of Gotham from his pocket, and examined the crumpled piece of paper. He'd planned to investigate Wayne Tower after Gotham Power Plant, where the next location was, but after hearing from Barbara that there was a robbery, he decided to investigate the latter first.

Unknown to him, that very vent he leaned up against was actually the one of the power boxes to the many security cameras in the building, the electricity flowing straight into the one camera that was pointed right at him from the roof door several metres away.

* * *

 

"It's him." said Robin, frowning in annoyance as he stared at the hunched figure of the Ghost King, who leaned against what appeared to be an air vent on the roof of Wayne Tower.

"We have squad surrounding the building, and we've sent men guarding the staircases and every elevator entrance. This kid is going nowhere." said Commissioner Gordon, with an air of certainty.

"Would you like my officers to deal with him, or you?"

The Commissioner knew the answer, though, but it felt polite to ask.

"I'll deal with him myself." And with that, Robin strode forth and headed out the front entrance of the Tower.

"Wait, don't you want the lift or something?" Robin simply turned and smirked, before disappearing out the door.

"Couldn't stay away from  _all_ these valuable stuff, hey?" Nico jumped slightly, before cursing when he noticed Robin and the security camera for the first time. Wordlessly,

Nico began looking around for an exit, a door perhaps, but Robin's voice made him stop.

"Don't bother, the building's surrounded, and I'm sorry to say that your lies won't help you now."

Nico could fucking _see_  the red and blue lights flaring off the police cars, three-hundred storeys above the ground; he hadn't realised how tall the Wayne Tower really was. He opened his mouth to say something, but a voice inside his head stopped him.

_Save your breath, Nico, there's no point staying to chat. You've gotten the information you need, well, sort of anyways, so just go!_

Nico wanted to scream at his subconscious for being a bloody idiot.

 _How?!_ He yelled inwardly, his eyes growing slightly frantic for an exit.

_Look with your eyes, stupid._

Nico took a step back, and his heart stopped when his heels hit the ledge of the roof. He glanced behind and below him, and saw the policemen on the streets the size of ants. He glanced back up at Robin, who held a bo-staff crackling with electricity in his hands.

 _I could probably fight him…_ and then  _that_ thought was crushed when twenty or so officers burst through the roof door, Taser guns drawn and pointing at his chest. All hopes of shadow-travelling away perished. He bit his lip, glaring at everyone on the roof, the Boy Wonder in particular as he clenched his hands into balls of fists. He hated the thought of having to surrender and be arrested, but realised he had no choice. Slowly raising his hands, he sighed in defeat as he dropped into his pocket.

"Knives out,  _all of them_." commanded Robin as the officers moved closer, arms never wavering, guns still pointed at him. He reached inside his cloak, about to take the first dagger in his pocket out…and that was when he noticed it. That was when he noticed how… _Oh…I get it_.

Nico froze in his actions, before slowing looking up, and the smirk on his face made the officers stop their advance and Robin's own smirk to fade a little. He took a step back, and Robin's eyes went wide when he realised what the Ghost King intended.

"No, wait!"

Too late. Nico had taken another step back, his feet meeting air as the sight of Robin and the officers disappeared from sight in a  _whoosh_. His body was spinning in the air, and when his face spun towards the ground hundreds of metres below. The ant-sized people were growing into the size of his thumb, and their looks of horror became clearer and clearer as the ground came speeding towards him…


	11. Chapter 11

_What the fuck are you doing?!_

That sounded like Hecate's scolding voice.  _Good question._ The ground was coming up fast, the wind popping his ears as it whipped around him, and his mind grew dizzy because his body wouldn't stop spinning, and Nico was certain he would be a demigod pancake soon, when he suddenly recalled  _why_ he had jumped off the gods' forsaken three-hundred storey building.

He should not be in the air, with Zeus still mad when half-bloods of the Big Three would fly on planes, but the God of Thunder was probably busy or something, and didn't zap him out of the sky. He stopped spinning suddenly, and didn't even have time to thank the gods as he glanced to his right, where the side of Wayne Tower had a huge shadow of the building next to it. If he could get close enough, he  _could_ shadow-travel out of falling, but the problem was that there was a five-metre gap between him and the side of the building.

And then Nico stupidly glanced down, and knew that he had no choice; he was barely a hundred metres from the ground.

Swallowing his wits, Nico pressed his arms to his sides, and plunged towards the side of the building. Reaching a hand out, he hoped that it would work as he closed his eyes and pictured his apartment…and then a sharp pain shot up his arm, and he was engulfed in darkness.

Robin cursed loudly.

"Stand down." He told the policemen, and he barely noticed them nodding before he dived over the side of the roof after the Ghost King.

He could see him, spinning around and around. He was out of control, Robin knew, and it would take some bloody miracle for him to stop spinning so Robin cold catch him, or else The Boy Wonder would have to take to rather painful methods to stop the boy from splattering on the ground. That was when the boy suddenly stopped spinning, and plunged to the side of the building.

"No!" yelled Robin, but his voice was lost in the wind.

The Ghost King was going to slam his head into the side of the building, Robin knew, when suddenly, he reached an arm out, and within a blink of an eye, he was gone. Robin's eyes widened in disbelief, but didn't have time to wonder how that happened as the ground came rushing towards him. Flipping his body around, he pointed his grappling hook to the sky and shot. The hook caught itself on the ledge of the building next to Wayne Tower, and Robin's fall came to a slow, and he landed on the ground in a soft  _thrud_.

"What happened? Where is he?" asked Gordon.

"Gone." Said Robin, irritated and frustrated.

 _Was the Ghost King a master at deception? Did he have teleportation powers or something?_ Robin guessed it was the latter, and turned to the Commissioner.

"Where's the dagger from last night?"

"At the lab, but I could get it for you if you—" "

I just need your keys," Commissioner Gordon nodded, and fished out a pouch full of keys. "Thanks. I'll leave them on your desk when I'm done." And with that, Robin hopped on his R-bike, and sped off into the night.

* * *

 

It was three in the morning when Nico woke. He opened his eyes to darkness, and felt his bed beneath him.  _So it did work_. The Son of Hades sat up, using his left arm for support, but as soon as he put pressure on the arm, a sharp pain shot through it. He cursed and used his right arm instead. Feeling light-headed, Nico stumbled towards the lightswitch, and as soon as the light flooded the room, that was when he noticed that the palm of his hand was swollen and bruised, and his fingers were grazed and bleeding.

Nico searched his pockets for nectar and ambrosia, and found a canteen of the former. Emptying the bottle, Nico instantly felt refreshed, and the grazes in his fingers were healing fast, and his hand wasn't as swollen. After eating as much as he dared, the swelling had gone down considerably, but the bruise was still there and it still hurt to put pressure on it.

 _You fractured it_. Said a voice in his mind, the voice of Hecate.

 _Can you heal it?_  He asked.

 _Well, you can thank the food of the gods healing most of it, but it's still bruised pretty badly. I am not Apollo, so I cannot, but give it a week and it should fine._  And with that, he felt her presence leave his mind. Nico sighed then,  _how am I supposed to do rock climbing tomorrow?_

* * *

 

**GOTHAM ACADEMY**

**November 2nd, 10:45EDT**

"What'd you do to your hand?" asked Dick.

They were at break, and waiting for Barbara to join them.

"I was cycling yesterday, after school. Some idiot with roller-blades decided to over take me, but tripped. Downhill too. So I had to twist my bike away or else I would've crushed him, and landed on my hand."

Dick just laughed.

Nico had found a medical kit in one of the drawers in his apartment, so he wrapped a long bandage over his hand.

"So is it broken?"

"Fractured."

"So you won't be doing roc climbing today?"

"Eh, I suppose if the coach doesn't  _see_ the bandage he'll not know about it."

A moment of silence floated over the two of them, and just as it started to get awkward, "Oh, I just remembered. Babs won't be joining us today. She has something on with her Spanish club."

"Okay then." said Nico, feeling indifferent.

"We should probably get changed now, the bus leaves as soon as the bell rings."

And with that, the two teens picked up their P.E. gear and headed towards the bathroom.

* * *

 

"di Angelo! Grayson!" barked the coach, and Dick smirked at Nico.

"I'll go easy on you, seeing as the colour of your palm is the same as a grape."

Nico only snorted. "I won't."

They headed forth and strapped themselves to the safety harness, and stood a metre from the wall.

"Remember, the first to ring the bell wins."

Nico glanced up the 30 metre wall, and spotted the small bronze bell at the top.

"Ready, set, go!" Coach Nor blew the whistle, and immediately, the two teens lunged forwards.

Dick scrambled up, placing his feet wherever the rock face had a dent or hole, and was up to halfway within 20 seconds, he was  _sure_ Nico was probably struggling, and stole a glance down.

But he wasn't there.

Moving his eyes up, he saw the other teen, ascending the climb as fast as Dick, and was already a metre above him. Dick cursed and hurried his movements, determined to beat him. All thoughts of 'going easy' were gone, replaced by determination and competition. He was just a metre from the bell, and he placed his foot on the next hold, reaching his arm up to ring it when— _Ding!_

A pale and purple hand had beaten him to it, the sound echoing loud and clear.

"di Angelo, winner!" announced the coach, and several students down on the ground below applauded.

"How'd you do that, with just one hand?" asked Dick.

"I thought you were going 'easy'." smirked Nico instead, as the two of them were being lowered.

"Nah, you beat me with just one hand."

"Before I moved to Gotham, I literally rock-climbed everyday."

Nico left out the lava falls and shifting rock faces of Camp half-blood, and instead, explained how he would climb dangerous faces with falling rocks and mud avalanches.

"That's sounds dangerous. Where was this?"

"A course. At Long Island."

"So you're a New Yorker then? Huh, never would've guessed by your accent. Your family came from Italy?"

"My mum." Nico's tone told Dick that he was not to question that subject further, so he backed off. Mood suddenly sullen and dark, Nico unstrapped himself from the harness as his feet touched the ground.

"Need to go to the bathroom, meet you at the bus."

* * *

 

**HAPPY HARBOR**

**November 2nd, 17:09 EDT**

"Team, I thank you for gathering in such haste, but with Batman away, Robin alone will not be able to do this mission alone."

"Hey, anything beats doing my English essay." exclaimed Wally.

Red Tornado waited until the speedster realised that he was not done, before turning around and tapped several keys into the computer.

"Klarion the Witch Boy has been spotted around Gotham City,"

A picture of Klarion's twisted smile appeared in the hologram screen, along with his equally demonic cat, Teekl.

"There has been a number of activity at the Gotham Power Plant. I want you to investigate, report back to Black Canary who will be monitoring your progress. Do  _not_ engage without the order."

The team nodded, before transforming their uniform into stealth.

"Let's do this!" exclaimed Kid Flash, racing towards the bio-ship.

* * *

 

"You are Rachel Rykel?" asked Nico, crossing his arms at the shimmering form of the woman in front of him.

Her ghostly arms were red and raw from where the chains at held her down, and her face was brutally burnt. She wore an orange jumpsuit of the Fields of Punishment, and her acid-stained clothes had changed the colour of it to brown.

"Yes, sir." She said.

"Why did you kill Cyrus Gold?"

The ghost was silent.

" _Answer me_ , or else I won't hesitate to change your acid-and-burn sentence to the flaming chamber."

She gulped then; every ghost would not want to spend eternity in the flaming chamber, where they would be burned and healed everyday, with the pain being fresh every minute.

"Because he got me pregnant but denied it, refusing to give me any money. I mean, how is a prostitute meant to raise a baby? No brothel excepts pregnant women."

"So you blackmailed him, but he refused. Then you got your pimp Jimmy to bash him til he blacked out, so you could bury him at Slaughter Swamp?" Rachel nodded, and Nico sighed.

"What was your son's name?"

"Luke Rykel, but that's not important to you. My baby was a good man."

"What do you know about your descendants? Theon?"

"Nothing. Last I heard he was put into the Fields of Asphodel."

"Any idea why he was murdered?"

Rachel shook her head.

"Sorry sir, I got no clue."

Nico pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Well, you co-operated. I guess I could lower your sentence by two hundred years."

Nico waved the ghost away before she would thank him. Biting a tiny square of ambrosia to refresh himself, he fished another set of happy meal's from his bag. Summoning spirits was hard work, and took a toll on his body, but now that he knew which spirit the necromancer (who he suspected was probably that witch boy, Klarion) happened to be Cyrus Gold of the 19th century, he had to summon him.

"Cyrus Gold." He muttered, pouring the fries and small burger into the pit he dug.

He waited, but when nothing happened, Nico grumbled under his breath as he twisted his ring, and his Stygian Iron sword with the Key of Hades in it expanded. He stabbed the sword into the ground, muttering the extra chant with it to make sure that Cyrus would be summoned; there were some spirits in the Underworld that required an extra pull to get them out.

The half-blood waited, getting more and more impatient, but nothing happened.

"Cyrus Gold, if you do not show yourself this instant, I will not hesitate to throw your sorry ass into Tartarus."

"He will not be coming." said a voice behind him.

Nico spun around in a flash, pulling his sword up. He could feel a presence around him, but the darkness of the trees in the forest he was in hid the person.

"Who are you?" he hissed.

"Just an old friend. Too bad I am getting bored, I think I should probably bring you to your friends for a proper hello."

Nico saw something move in the shadows, and was about to strike when a loud roar rumbled through the forest. Bewildered, he spun, just in time to see a  _huge_  dark shape slam into him, knocking him out instantly.

* * *

 

"Looks fine to me." whispered Superboy as he scanned the power plant once more with his infa-red vision.

He'd left his shields down at the cave, but when he'd ask to go back they were already half-way to Gotham, so he'd have to leave them for this particular mission.

"Are the guards there?" asked Aqualad next to him.

"I see their heat-signatures, standing at every door."

"Okay, any power-fluxes that Klarion normally gives off?"

"Uh, no, I don't see any—"

' _Guys!'_  came Megan's alarmed voice through their minds.

' _Come over the west entrance now!'_

Superboy launched himself into the air along with Aqualad, and landed quietly where Megan was. Robin did a somersault as he landed from the roof along with Artemis, while Kid Flash and Zatanna appeared in a blink of an eye.

' _What's wrong?'_ asked Artemis.

_'The wall, someone blew a hole in it and sealed it up, I wouldn't have noticed but when I tried to phase through the door I felt a mix of swamp residue along it that does not belong to the cement wall.'_

Zatanna flew forth and pressed her hands on the wall.

' _A blast to make the hole this big must've made a loud noise, wouldn't the guards know then?'_ asked Kid Flash.

 _'Look at claw marks, I bet all of Batman's money that they were from Teekl.'_ thought Robin.

_'More importantly, this hole was made only a few hours ago, surely the guards would…'_

"Wait." said Superboy aloud.

He gathered his strength and pushed at the wall, and without even a grunt, the section where it had been cut pushed in smoothly, and fell inside with a loud crash. Superboy hopped in without another word, and the team had no choice but to follow. The half-kryptonian expected to have guards coming, but none came. Wally raced past him, while the others investigated.

_'The guards, they're alive an all, but they seem to be…frozen.'_

Superboy headed and the others gathered around where Megan was, and indeed, the guard was standing, breathing properly, hands clutched onto his rifle. His eyes though…they were fixed straight, his expression still as a stone, never moving even when Aqualad snapped his fingers in front of him.

' _What does thi—'_

 _'Uh guys, you might want to see this.'_ came KF's voice through the mental-link, and the team hurried to where he was.

On the ground in front of him was a guard, lying faced down in his own blood. His neck and body was twisted in an odd angle, and several hard and white…things stuck out of his back.

 _'What could've done this? I don't think a human hands like that.'_ said Megan.

 _'Vandal Savage?_   _Klarion has been his pet dog for a while now.'_

_'No, it doesn't make sense. What would Vandal be doing here at Gotham?'_

' _The power box is missing.'_ Artemis said, and everyone looked up to see the large missing area on the wall where the high voltage power box used to be.

' _I may be able to get the guards out of whatever trance they're in.'_ said Zatanna, and she levitated down to the nearest one.

"Esnaelc siht nam fo lla slleps!" she said, and the guard doubled over, coughing and spluttering.

Robin moved forth to help him, and once the man noticed the band of super heroes around him, dropped his rifle and leant against a steel pillar.

"What happened here?" asked Robin.

"H-he…he came in the dark…wielding a sword. There was red, a lot of red, and that's all I remember."

Robin was about to question the man further, when suddenly, a flash of red streaked through the room, and the man was suddenly on the ground, a long streak of red on his chest, and the colour was expanding as he twitched on the ground. Before long, the man had sprayed out a shower of red from his mouth, and stopped twitching. His eyes dulled, and he lay there, dead.

"Who's there." said Robin, narrowing his eyes and drawing two bird-a-rangs. Artemis had her bow notched, Aqualad drew his twin water-sticks while Kid Flash, Superboy, Megan and Zatanna took their battle stances.

"As much as I'd like to destroy you, I have someone to introduce you to."

And that was the last thing Robin remembered, before darkness swallowed him along with the rest of the team.


	12. Chapter 12

The first thing Nico felt as he woke, was that his wrists were numb, head pounding, and his chest was tight. He opened his eyes slowly, eyelids heavy and his right eye was swollen.

"So it  _is_ true that half-bloods have a quicker recovery rate than humans," said a screechy voice, and Nico groaned softly as he slowly lifted his head.

Wherever he was, it was dark.

The only light source being a single, red glowing ball at the end of the place. He tried to move his arms, but realised that he was chained to the wall with iron shackles, judging by the clinking noise of the links bumping against one another as he tried to move his limps.

"Where…where am I?" he rasped, his tongue was as rough as sandpaper in his mouth, his saliva like sawdust.

"Oh you don't need to know that, but I just wanted you to see you… _friends_."

Nico heard two claps, and suddenly, red torches erupted all over the room. So he was in a cave, underground, with soil around him, and it seemed like that half-blood wasn't the only captive. Seven slumped figures were chained to the wall around him contained in red energy cages.

"Who are they?" he croaked.

"Your friends."

A mental image of Percy, Annabeth, Grover and everyone at Camp half-blood appeared in his mind. He pictured all the half-bloods as the slumped figures, growing angry at the thought…that was when he realised, whoever his captor was, they would have had  _no_ idea of the half-blood camp was.

"They're not my friends." He said calmly.

"Oh? Really? Shall I wake one up then?"

"Go ahead."

Nico was more interested in shadow-travelling away than whoever this person kidnapped, but when his attempt to go back to his apartment was vain, and saw red energy shoot from the shadowed figure, he knew immediately who this person with a screechy voice was; Klarion, the supposed 'Lord of Chaos', the one…thing (he didn't seem much like human) he had stupidly told his identity to.

Suddenly, a scream rang through the dank air, and for a moment, there was silence, until that person gasped and panted for air.

"S-Superboy!" it was a female's voice, no doubt, coming from someone two persons to Nico's left.

"Aqualad! Artemis? R-Robin…"

The voice quickly became gasps of breaths, almost as if the person was suffocating.

"W-Who…who's…there…" The girl rasped.

"Miss Martian…is it just me, or do you feel the cold as well? I should probably warm you up."

Klarion twisted his hand, and orange flames erupted around the girl's cage. Nico could see the girl; she wore a black shirt with a red X in the middle. Her cape, shoes and skirt were matching blue, and her hair was the same colour as the fire-y glow, but the most incredulous thing was, her skin was green.

The girl, 'Miss Martian' or something gasped out an incoherent word, before slumping, fat drops of sweat rolling down her cheeks.

Now, Nico didn't know any of these people, but he figured that they must be the teen-aged superheroes, the junior Justice League that he'd heard about from all over camp. Although he may not be a fan of them, and couldn't really give two fucks about how they are, he was not one to like torturing.

"Klarion, I think you better back off and free us, before I kick your sorry arse down to Tartarus."

The Witch Boy just laughed.

"And how will you do that? Without that stolen sword of yours, you are  _nothing._  Just a stupid bastard kid born cause one of the gods wanted to whore around Earth."

" _You fucking take that back_." hissed Nico, anger bubbling inside him.

Someone insulting his friends he would bash them, someone to insult the gods he couldn't give a shit, someone insulting his mother, and he would be ready to flay the man, pull his entrails out and stuff them down their throat.

"And what? Are you going to condemn me to the measly Underworld you humans fear? Make threats cause you think your daddy will save his crying baby's butt?"

The room was lit up dimly by red torches, but the cave faded away as well as the cages and Klarion's form in front of his own, because for the next few minutes, red was the  _only_ thing Nico saw. He didn't remember breaking out of the chains, or how he lunged across the room in such a poor physical state, but suddenly, he had Klarion pinned to the wall, on the other side of the cave, hands around the Witch Boy's neck and squeezing hard.

"There are  _many_ things I despise, but I don't think I have  _ever_ hated any other piles of shits as much as you."

He barely noticed that there was a red aura around him.

 _The blessing of Ares_ , came Hecate's voice in his mind, but he ignored her. The only thing me knew was that he felt  _invincible_. He raised a fist and smashed it into Klarion's face, punching the annoying twisted smile off the demon's face, and just as he was about to land another blow under his chin, Klarion's form turned into a large snake, and it slithered away behind the half-blood. Before he had time to react, however, Klarion had shot a streak of energy at his back.

The blessing of Ares went just as quick as it came, and Nico fell forward onto his knees, gasping in pain.

His back felt like it had been ripped open by pure energy, and he was certain Kampê's poison burned less than that. Unknown to the Witch Boy and the Son of Hades, however, was that the half of the former's captives was recovering and awoken.

"A force field? Seriously? That is  _so_ overrated," complained Kid Flash as he and Robin tried in vain to punch and kick at the invisible dome they were trapped in.

" _Megan? Megan, you read me?'_  asked Robin mentally, but he could not feel the Martian's presence in his mind.

He searched the room they were trapped in, and found two red energy cages, both surrounded by licks of flames.

"Shit. Aqualad and Miss Martian are both out, and I doubt they'd hold with the flames so close." said Robin.

"HELLO? CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?" yelled Wally.

There was a slumped figure on both sides of them, but they didn't budge.

"Robin, I think this thing is sound-proof," sighed Kid Flash.

"Wait, who's that?" hissed Robin, pressing against the dome to get a better look.

KF followed, and the two heroes watched as a dark figure with red energy crackling from his fingers stalk ominously towards the side of the cave they were in.

"Looks like we found our Guy." commented KF.

Klarion the Witch Boy's mouth was moving, like he was talking, and by the looks of the pauses between, it seemed like he was talking to  _someone_.

"Who do you think he's talking to?"

Robin glanced beside their force field. Superboy was chained to the wall with iron shackles, eyes struggling to open at the glowing green cage they boxed him in. The green substance could only be none other than the notorious substance, Kryptonite. How Klarion got his hands on that was alarming.

Artemis was bound by her wrists and ankles, her quiver was gone as well as her bow. A brown gag was stuffed in her mouth, but her eyes were also on Klarion, and by the looks of it, she  _could_ hear everything the two were saying. Zatanna was held by dark energy binds that must've involved the mystic arts; her mouth as taped up with duct tape.

Suddenly, a blur of black zapped through the cave, and within the next second, Klarion was held by the throat, his attacker a black figure that Kid Flash didn't recognise, but Robin certainly did.

"Wow." He said, his white-eye slits masking his confusion and irritation.

"That's the Ghost King," said Robin.

"That Ghost King? Where did you hear that? From some kid's English creative?" smirked Kid Flash.

"He's this kid that's been wandering around Gotham. He may be a Meta, but I'm not sure. It's a long story," said Robin.

"What can he do?"

"Disappear."

And KF did not miss the irritation in the Boy Wonder's voice.

"So you know what its like then, huh?" smirked Kid Flash, despite the situation.

"Shut up." said Robin.

"I didn't know you were  _that_ sensiti–"

"No really, look." said Robin.

KF looked up, to see a strange red glow around the 'Ghost King' but only for a moment, before Klarion slammed red volts of energy into his back, and he collapsed.

"Uh, dude, do people  _torture_ their work partners?"

"Well this is Klarion we're dealing with, not some common crook. He's crazy with a capital C." stated Robin.

Suddenly, they heard a  _thump_. Confused, they looked at each other, before looking around.  _Thump._

"It's Artemis," said KF, and Robin looked down, to see that the blond archer had already managed to shrug out of one of her hand binds, and had unsheathed her hidden knife on her belt.

After discovering that slicing the knife through the energy balls would break the cages as well as force-field generators, Artemis, Kid Flash and Robin were free within minutes. The Witch Boy himself was too busy tormenting the Ghost King to notice.

"When you guys are finished with your girl talk, you can help me with Superboy." whispered Artemis.

"Women." muttered KF under his breath.

He had to bit his lip to stop an exclamation of pain when Artemis punched him in the shoulder.

"-and thanks for stealing that sword. I must say, it had helped me with my latest toy," sneered Klarion, his spit flying over Nico's bloodied bruised and bloodied face. The Witch Boy had re-chained Nico to the wall.

"You've been trying to raise Cyrus Gold, some merchant from the 19th century. Why the  _fuck_ would you earn yourself an eternity in the Fields of Punishment for that?"

"You'll know soon enough." smirked Klarion.

" _And_ you killed this guy's descendant. You mortals, I will never understand you."

Klarion's eyes flashed, and suddenly, he was standing in the middle of the room, his form three times the size of what he was moments ago, and red fire danced in his eyes and palms.

" _I AM KLARION, LORD OF CHAOS. NO ONE CALLS ME MORTAL WITHOUT BEING INCINERATED!_ " he boomed, his usual screechy voice was like a thousand knives in the ear when it was amplified so loud.

"You're just a drama queen who loves street magic and hasn't' quite reached puberty yet, get over yourself." Nico said bluntly.

For a moment, Klarion was about to literally incinerate Nico, right there in his chains, when a voice echoed throughout the cave.

" _thgil pu siht evac!"_

Suddenly, the cave was flooded with light, and Nico struggled to see for a moment, before his eyes settled, and saw seven oddly dressed people around the cave.

"Man, I should've stayed in that force-field for that, I think I'll be deaf for the next month," exclaimed Kid Flash.

"The junior Justice League babies, finally woken from your little nap?"

"Wasn't that hard." said Artemis, armed with her knife.

"It wasn't meant to be, I just gave you all time to prepare." Klarion smirked, and there was something Nico didn't like about the look in the crazed demon's eyes.

"Prepare? You let Megan  _burn_! You'll pay for that!" yelled Superboy angrily fists clenched.

Aqualad had recovered quickly, but Miss Martian said she still felt weak and may not be able to fight very well, if at all. The half-Kryptonian looked like he was about to charge blindly into the fight, as he always did, but was halted by Klarion's next actions.

"Any of you move, he dies."

All the heroes froze at the sight of Klarion wielding a black dagger to the still-chained Nico's throat.

"Really? You steal my weapons and point them at me? You're more pathetic than I thought." said Nico with a roll of his eyes, unfazed by the blade that was inches from his vulnerable throat.

"Let him go," said Robin.

"Or what? Tell on me to your bat daddy? Lock me up in your mortal cells?  _Kill me_?"

Klarion laughed at the last one.

"No, you're all too pussy to harm a bug."

No one moved, until Klarion's head suddenly snapped towards the floating girl in a tuxedo.

"Quit your mutterings, Zatanna, before I show you what  _real_ red looks like."

The crazed demon held the knife closer to Nico's throat.

"Oh for  _fuck_ 's sake." snapped Nico.

He thrust his knee forwards and slammed it into Klarion's thigh. The demon hissed and dove the knife down…into the mud wall. The Ghost King was gone, faded into the shadows and re-appeared at the other side of the cave.

"That's not  _all_ I can do," he hissed, closing his eyes.

Klarion and the heroes' eyes widened when the black dagger crumbled to dust, and re-formed in Nico's hand. Varies streams of black dust floated into the room, with him having duel knives.

"Now!" yelled Robin, lunging forwards at the Witch Boy.

But said demon warped away, and Robin's bo-staff only hit air. Klarion re-appeared levitating in the top corner of the cave.

"Well, now that you're all up and ready, time for Round 2!" he announced, and snapped his fingers.

The area around them twisted, and suddenly, the 8 teens found themselves inside a large gladiator arena with their feet rooted to the ground with black magically formed energy. Thousands, probably  _millions_ of spectators were watching on the stands, but from their empty expressions and hollow eyes, they were probably a mist, a hologram.

"Took you long enough," rasped a scarce female voice. "We were starvin' in here."

The team turned towards the voice, to see a group of female cheerleaders, led by a hideous half-snake lady. The monster turned her face to Nico.

"Ah we meet again…Ghost King." She said the last part as a mock, and Nico knew it.

"You've gotten uglier since that last time we met, no wonder they exiled you from Libya."

The Lamia bared her fangs and hissed angrily.

"You children, all so spoiled rotten by your  _parents_ , and you wonder why I gave these wonderful ladies the ability to find bad children."

"Oh just  _shut up!_  I want to start Round 2!" whined Klarion.

' _He sounds like a fucked up toddler.'_  thought Nico.

' _Language!'_ scolded a voice, and Nico nearly jumped three feet in the air in fright.

' _The fuck was that?!'_  he nearly exclaimed aloud.

All the other seven heroes had stayed still during his and the Lamia's exchange.

' _Sorry to scare you, but we couldn't exactly leave you out of the battle strategy talk.'_

The girl with green skin, Miss Martian or something, winked at him from the corner of her eye, and he grew angry.

' _Has anyone told you anything about privacy?'_ he hissed mentally.

' _It's okay! I swear on…o-on my aunt Gretchen's grave two miles from Uncle John's vacation house on the outskirts of Mars East that I will not pry!'_

Nico only caught a third of what Miss Martian just said, and knew what she meant, but that didn't mean he had to be happy about it.

' _Martian Manhunter has a vacation house on Mars?'_  asked a calm, female voice that Nico didn't recognise.

' _That's so cool!'_ exclaimed another, male's voice.

' _Uh, can I get an orientation then? I'm guessing the guy who looks like Superman's son is Superboy, Miss Martian is the one who invaded my mind, Kid Flash is the guy with the thunderbolt on his chest and Robin…'_

Nico trailed off at that, and the others knew not to pry at how their mental chat room suddenly grew tense ( _how does that even work?)_. The team and Nico diverted their attention back towards the band of cheerleaders, the Lamia and Klarion at the sound of a loud  _clang_!

It seemed that something was wrong with the way Klarion was cursing.

' _I'm Zatanna.'_ said the calm, female voice who spoke earlier.

' _I'm Artemis_.' sighed the other, with a voice that was slightly higher pitch.

 _Artemis…_ thought Nico to himself, the name (well, other than the fact that it was the name for a Greek Goddess) sounded familiar, and the heroine's blond hair rang a bell in his mind. Nico wasn't sure, but after the battle he would have to check, well, if he had enough time to stick around before they began to interrogate him.

"Round Two Begins!" bellowed a voice from nowhere, and a large bay door appeared on the side of the area.

The sound of rattling chains quieted the crowd, and when the door was opened, a  _huge_ dark figure stood just beyond the line of vision. There was a moment so quiet that you could here a pin drop on the ground, before the thing stepped into the sunlight ( _where did the sun come from?)._

The thing was at least eight feet tall; its skin was grey and rotting, with green underneath. A torn and tattered orange jumpsuit was on him like clothes, but its face was hideous. Its eyes were rotted hollow pits of nothing, yet it seemed to be able to see. Large, jagged things that could barely pass off as teeth (or fangs, for that matter) filled his mouth, and green, acidic and poisonous looking substance dripped from the edge of his mouth and several other places on his skin where it was open.

"What is that?" said Kid Flash aloud, and Nico could only guess as the thing huffed and started for them.

"Ah, team and the pesky little half-breed, meet your new playmate! Sol—"

"SOLOMON GRUNDY!" roared the creature; he leaped up fifty metres into the air, hands together in a joined fist.

Superboy managed to rip free of the magic hold first, and growled as he leapt into the air to meet the zombie looking beast. The force of their clash sent shockwaves to the ground, creating a small earthquake that sent the cheerleaders stumbling and breaking the magic binds.

The team jumped into action, Miss Martian and Aqualad rushing to help Superboy while Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis and Zatanna turned their attention towards the Lamia and the cheerleaders. All seven cheerleaders hissed, perfectly manicured fingers morphing into claws along with the rest of their form.

"Uh, anyone know who these lovely ladies are?" asked Kid Flash nervously at the sight of the once pretty looking collage cheerleaders, now hideously looking demons with one donkey leg and one bronze metal.

"Oh, Kid Flash. We're just here for some fun!" exclaimed one, her melodious voice clashing with her appearance.

Kid Flash suddenly looked dazed as the monster advanced towards him. Another was approaching Robin.

"Baywatch! Are you actually the stupidest  _and_ the blindest person on this Earth? These are  _demon_ s!" yelled Artemis, throwing her knife at the demon, but the steel blade merely bounced off the monster's chest.

"raelC s'niboR dnim!" said Zatanna, but nothing happened as another demon continued to approaching the dazed hero, both paying no mind to the magician floating behind the Boy Wonder, tapping on his shoulder.

Nico sighed,  _empousa_ i were annoying monsters. He slid out two daggers and threw them point-blank at the monsters' faces, and the demons screamed as its soul was sucked into the blade.

"Next time, just shut them out. The eyes are especially dangerous." said Nico, and whilst Robin and KF quickly shook out of their dazes, Artemis and Zatanna looked at him in shock.

"You  _knew_ what they were?"

" _Empousa_ , monsters who prey on men, they seduce them before tearing their throats out."

The heroes looked horrified for a moment, and Nico merely shrugged, before they suddenly remembered that there were five more of those demons left, along with the Lamia and Klarion who'd disappeared.

Robin, Artemis and Kid Flash charged, and just as Zatanna was about to, another monster slid in her way.

"Zatanna, I never thought I'd meet the  _all legendary sorcerous!_ Our mother wouldn't shut up about you for  _years_."

Zatanna looked shock.

" _Our_ mother? What are you talking about?"

The Lamia rolled her eyes.

"Oh  _please_. Don't you pretend to be innocent. Unless if you simply deny that the all powerful Hecate is your mother, then I'll be happy to let her know."

"I have  _no_ idea what you're—"

The entire arena flashed for a moment, and Nico saw the spectator stands shimmer into a dark room, before it shifted back into the arena.

"W-what?!"

Nico's eyes snapped to Zatanna's exclamation of surprise, and saw something that made him raise a brow.

Floating above the magician's head was a holographic image of two crossed torches, glowing orange and red. The Lamia growled at this, and hissed.

"So now it's official."

Black magical tendrils suddenly shot from the monster's fingertips, straight for the magician. Zatanna's eyes narrowed as she raised her hands, crackling with yellow energy balls.

"I have no idea what you're on about, but if you're asking for a fight, I'll give you one." Before yellow and black magic energy clashed, sizzling the air and creating a rather spectacular light show.

Superboy panted, out of breath. The beast they fought never seemed to tire, and every time it raised its fists to smash the ground or swat at the heroes that were the size of his palms, it would be attached with a bellow of "GRUNDY SMASH!"

Aqualad leapt back, accessing the situation. Miss Martian was trying to telekinetically pull the beast apart, because once they'd discovered that the beast was most likely an un-dead creature, with re-generating abilities and regrowth of limbs, they fought with no mercy.

"Miss M, Superboy! Manoeuvre five!"

The two other heroes nodded, and Superboy gathered his strength on the ground, while Miss Martian readied her mind for what was about to happen next. Aqualad shot water from his Water Bearer Sticks, summoning a tidal wave behind him.

"Now!" Miss Martian rooted Grundy to the spot, groaning in effort at the strength it took.

Aqualad released the wave, and transformed the water to sea serpents that surrounded Grundy. He then clashed his hydro-sticks together, summoning bio-electricity, before slamming it into the water serpents.

Grundy roared as lightning bolt after lightning bolt hit him, and when Aqualad smashed the water into the monster's face with as much force as possible, Superboy charged at it with a battle scream.

The manoeuvre was meant to weaken Grundy, and from its roar Aqualad was certain it worked, but he was gravely mistaken. The blast had seemed to speed up Grundy's regeneration rate from what little the heroes had done to him, and he flung Superboy aside like a rag doll. Aqualad gritted his teeth as he readied his hydro-sticks, forming a sword and shield out of water, before charging at the beast.

Nico stood in the centre of the arena, confused and unsure of what to do. Technically, this was  _not_ his fight, with the junior Justice League here, but it was due to monsters from his world. He glanced to his left, where Superboy, Aqualad and Miss Martian struggled against Solomon Grundy, while Artemis, Kid Flash and Robin fought the  _empousai_  in vain.

He was still weak from all that Klarion did to him, and figured he couldn't do much.

 _That's right, where is that little twat?_  He thought, looking around; that was when he felt a presence behind him, but it was too late. A sharp pain shot through his right leg, and he muffled a scream as something bloody and black stuck out of his left thigh. Nico dropped to one knee, and he struggled to rise as Klarion appeared in front of him, crackling.

" _Half-blood_ ," he spat, "I'm quite liking my new sword, don't you think?"

Klarion was holding midnight black sword, the one with the Key of Hades in the blade. The owner of the three-foot-long sword could only pant at the pain in his leg.

"I'd like to kill you now, but I think I would have you scream first." Klarion swung the blade down, aiming for Nico's arm, but the half-blood managed to shadow-travel away.

The Son of Hades re-appeared on the other side of the arena, hoping he wouldn't' be spotted just yet as he searched his pockets for nectar and ambrosia. He struggled to breathe at the pain in his leg, and he leant on his left. He didn't even want to see the amount of blood that was pouring out of the ragged wound.

 _Bingo_.

He found a large square of ambrosia, and stuffed it into his mouth, just as Klarion spotted him and appeared next to the half-blood, snarling.

"You won't be doing that again."

The Witch Boy lifted his stolen sword, about to strike the Son of Hades, but Nico whipped out a dagger just in time to intercept. Klarion was stronger that he looked, and Nico struggled for a moment, falling to his left leg once again. That was when he felt the magic of the ambrosia work, running through his veins and healing him. He growled, slowly pushing Klarion back and rising to his feet.

A shot of pain ran through his right leg, but he ignored it, his hatred and anger towards the demon in front of him building and fuelling him.

" _I'm sick of your shit_."

Nico flicked his blade, and Klarion stumbled back, his twisted smile fading. The Son of Hades began to land blow after blow at Klarion, forcing him to take steps back and back again, not realising that they were moving closer towards the others until Klarion backed right into the monstrous beast, Solomon Grundy.

"You summoned Cyrus Gold, and forced his spirit into  _that_." stated Nico, angry.

He took one glance at the struggling heroes against the  _empousai ,_ and narrowed his eyes. "You hired demon cheerleaders to help you as well as a crazy magic lady from the third century. You are more pathetic than the worms in the Earth that will eat your eyes out when you die."

Klarion managed to deflect each blow Nico dealt, and eventually stumbled back, but before he could say anything, Nico had beaten him.

"You wanted to see what a Son of Hades could do? I'll show you."

Nico raised his dagger and stabbed it into the muddy ground.

" _Serve me_." he hissed in Ancient Greek.

For a moment, nothing happened, before the ground began to rumble, and cracks appeared from nowhere. The spectators were ignored for a moment, and everyone on the field froze, even Grundy. Nico heard scream, but he didn't care who it was as a skeletal hand shot out of the ground. More and more hands sprouted around the arena, and skeletons donned in army clothes of different countries and eras broke out of the ground, carrying rifles and celestial bronze knifes.

" _Attack!_ " yelled Nico in Ancient Greek, pointing his knife forwards.

That was when all hell broke loose.

The  _empousai_ were the first to disintegrate with a scream, before the twenty skeleton soldiers that Nico summoned attacked Grundy. The large monster swiped at them, with bellows of "GRUNDY SMASH!" but the soldiers merely reformed and continued their attack, before one finally dealt the final blow, cutting the monster's head clean off its neck. The others then cut off its limbs, and the beast's body crumbled down into a rotted skeleton as it fell to the ground.

The Lamia and Klarion were left, but Nico was too focused on the Witch Boy's fearful face.

"Here's my advice to you,  _never_ mess with a half-blood unless you have a death wish."

He snatched his sword out from Klarion's grip, and the demon stumbled back, trying to teleport away, but Nico waved a hand. Shadow-formed shackles appeared around Klarion's wrists and ankles, weighing him down; a black strip of pure shadow formed in front of Klarion's mouth, effectively gagging him.

A ginger cat suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and Nico trapped it as well, as he remembered seeing it with Klarion.

"You're not from this world." It was a statement. "So your cat must be your mortal tie, I mean, why else would you have a cat with glowing red eyes?"

Nico raised his sword, just above the cat's neck.

"Time to meet my father, the  _god_ who you liked to mock."

Nico plunged the sword down, and the scream that came with it was like a thousand little knives dragging on stone, the half-blood was sure his ears were bleeding when Klarion's soul was sucked into the blade and transported to the Underworld through the Key of Hades.

There was silence around him, and his ears were still ringing when he noticed that he was no longer in an arena, but rather, inside the Gotham Power Plant. He turned, to see the seven heroes around the Lamia who refused to disintegrate. Apparently, none of them heard his exchange with Klarion.

He headed their way, and waved away the skeletal soldiers who stood in salute in front of him, muttering his thank you's as the skeletons crumbled and sunk into the concrete ground.

"Lamia, your work is done," he said, pushing past Artemis and Kid Flash to face the monsters.

Said serpent lady snarled, hands still holding balls of energy. Her tunic was soaked in green blood from a wound she'd gotten from one of Zatanna's blasts, and her hair was half burnt off.

"Devil's spawn!"

Nico cracked a smirk through his mask that he'd forgotten he had on.

"That's what I am."

Nico raised his sword, about to strike her down, when she suddenly whipped out a hidden knife and charged at the nearest person other than Nico – Robin. The Boy Wonder had hurt his arm from one of an  _empousa's_ claws, and couldn't raise his broken staff to deflect it, but Nico had lunged forth and tackled the monster, stabbing her in the throat. The scream he got deafened him for the second time that day as the monster's soul was sucked into his sword.

"Thank you…Ghost King." said Robin, and Nico turned, to see the team looking at him in a variety of expressions.

They all regarded him uneasily, Miss Martian somewhat fearfully while Robin looked thankful. He kept his face blank and rose to his feet…that was when a sharp pain shot through his right leg, and he cursed when his fading adrenaline reminded that his leg was still injured…but there was something else, a dull, throbbing pain on his side. Nico looked down, and saw a cut right below his lowest left rib, the blood the flowed out turning black.

The pain grew as milliseconds ticked by, and it soon began to burn a horrible pain. Someone was speaking, but he wasn't sure whom, for his hearing became muffled. His heartbeat was the only thing he heard as he clenched his side, and the person's voice grew alarmed as he stumbled to his knees.

Hands grasped his arms, and he heard screaming that was probably from his own mouth. One thought was on his mind before he blacked out –  _Tartarus Poison_.


	13. Chapter 13

“His pulse…it’s slowing down.” said Superboy, while Robin and Aqualad, the ones who caught him lowered Ghost King to the ground.

“What do you think happened to him?” asked Artemis.

“Dunno, one second he was killing the weird snake lady, and the next he just collapsed.”

“M’gann, scan for injuries.”

“On it.” said the Martian, eyes beginning to glow green.

“Maybe it was because he was exhausted?” suggested Zatanna, but was halted by a gasp from M’gann.

“His leg tissue was torn, but was healed somehow, though still not completely. But there’s a cut on his side…with poison, and it’s spreading! Fast!”

“We have to get him some help.”

“The Batcave maybe? I’m sure Batman would make an exception.” suggested Kid Flash.

“No, there’s nothing there to help him with, we need magic.” said Robin.

“What do you mean?” asked Aqualad.

Robin knelt down and lifted Ghost King’s shirt gingerly, and the bloodied skin below looked nasty.

The blood from such a small cut was flowing out at an alarming rate, and the colour of it was black. Roots of the colour were spreading slowly around the wound, like fingers reaching out.

“Keep him still. We need to take him back to the cave.”

“We can’t exactly zeta-tube him away.” said Kid Flash.

“Yes we can.” said Robin.

“There’s a zeta-tube not far from here, Zatanna and M’gann, can you guys transport him as still as possible?”

Miss Martian nodded, “It’s that telephone booth right by the entrance, right?” she said just as Zatanna muttered a spell, and a floating hospital bed appeared inside a dome.

Miss Martian moved Ghost King telepathically onto the bed when Robin confirmed the location, and the two heroines raced out the door.

“Since when did you become the leader?” said Kid Flash jokingly.

Robin shrugged.

“I guess, he saved me once, I suppose I owe him one.”

“I thought you hated whoever he is.”

“Yeah, but dying of poison’s a bad way to go, don’t you think?”

“Can we just get back now?” Artemis cut in.

“Yeah, I’ve got some TV to catch up with.” said Superboy, turning and heading back to the Bio-ship.

“All he watches is static.” muttered Kid Flash to Robin, and was about to throw in another comment before the Boy Wonder nudged him.

“Um, are you forgetting that Supes has super-hearing?” said Robin, and Aqualad was the only one who saw Superboy’s smirk.

* * *

 

_“I hate you!” and ten-year-old Nico turned around and ran, tears blurring his vision and burning his eyes._

_He barely noticed the tall trees and dank forest air in front of him as he ran and ran. He barely even heard Percy’s voice behind him, calling his name._

He killed her, he let her die! I hate you Percy, I hate you I hate you I hate you! _Nico’s legs continued to move, bringing him past tree after tree, several of the wood nymph’s shocked faces were merely a blur to him until he reached a clearing. His legs gave out from under him, and he collapsed in the dirt, sobbing. Bianca’s gone._

_“Nico.” said a deep voice in front of him, and the half-blood curled into a ball._

_“Go away! I hate you!” he screamed._

_“Now, is that a way to speak to your father?”_

_Nico looked up, to see a shimmering image of a tall man in a black suit in front of him._

_“F-father?”_

_“This camp is no place for you, my son. Come to me.”_

_“H-how?”_

_The man pointed towards a pile of rocks._

_“Behind that you will find a door. There is darkness there, but do not be afraid of it, for darkness is your friend. It will guide your way.”_

_The breeze picked up, and the man disappeared._

_“Father! Wait!”_

_Nico’s reply was the silence of the forest. The ten-year-old stood, brushing the dirt off himself before walking behind the pile of rocks. He looked around, but saw no doorway, that is, until he noticed a small gap between two of the rocks. He placed a foot on the dirt between the rocks, and suddenly, the ground shook lightly as the gap expanded, and a hole appeared in the ground. He looked down, and saw that darkness was the only thing in the hole. In the distant, he heard the voices of Percy, Annabeth and Grover, and decided to step in._

The vision shifted, and suddenly, Nico found himself in a brightly lit room. The details around him were murky and blurred, but he saw a couple of brightly dressed figures as well as a tall man dressed in all red. His hearing was muffled, and he heard someone talking, but he couldn’t make out what it was. His entire body was numb, and he couldn’t move. Then he heard an exclamation of something, and the figures rushed to his side. Above him, was the face of a sixteen-year old boy with jet-black hair and sea-green eyes. Next to him was a girl with curly blond hair.

“P-Percy? Annabeth?”

“Oh, thank gods you’re okay, Nico!” said Percy, while Annabeth reached for his arm as he tried to sit up, but that slight movement had sent a thundering pain into his side, and Nico heard his own scream fill his ears as his vision turned black again.

* * *

 

“He’s hallucinating.” said Wonder Woman worriedly, as the Ghost King slipped back into unconsciousness after waking up for a few seconds, before screaming and collapsing.

“Will he be okay?” asked Robin.

“I don’t know. The poison is from a very dangerous place, and only one person would be able to heal him, but he is very hard to reach.”

“What type of poison is it?” asked M’gann.

Wonder Woman pursed her lips, “A type of poison I dare not say the name of, for it is cursed. I found some medicine in his pocket that would help him.”

From the looks of it, the ‘medicine’ was a pouch full of red seeds, several squares of brownies and a canteen of apple juice.

“This doesn’t look like medicine to me.” said Wally, grabbing a brownie off the table and was about to eat it, when Wonder Woman snatched it from his grip.

“Don’t eat that, unless you want your bones to turn to ashes and your blood into lava.” she warned.

“Whoa, okay.”

“Thanks for responding to our call, Diana, when we scanned his blood sample and it turned out to be similar to yours, I knew you would know what to do. Do you know him?” The Amazonian shrugged.

“I have heard of him, on Themyscara. His kind is the only sort of men our sisters would even mention.”

“His kind? What is he?” said Robin.

“That is not my place to say, I’m afraid.”

“So what, is he like a friend of the Amazons? A male version?”

Wonder Woman shook her head with a small smile.

“Nowhere near it, Kid Flash. But I can assure you that he will do you no harm, in fact, I think he would be a good addition to your little…team.”

“What? You want that creepy kid to be on our team?” exclaimed Wally.

“Kid! No need to be rude.” chided The Flash, who had dropped in with Wonder Woman for a visit.

“Why not? He’s just a young adult like you, with powers and a secret identity.”

“Why is his mask still on?” Red Tornado cut in as he entered the room, Black Canary in tow.

“We couldn’t get it off. It’s like it’s permanently glued onto his face or something.”

Suddenly, a beeping noise was heard, and Wonder Woman, Black Canary and The Flash all lifted their hands towards their ear.

“We’re on our way.” said Wonder Woman as she and Black Canary rushed out the door.

“Sorry kids, duty calls. But it was nice seeing you, hope to hang out again some other time.”

And with that, The Flash was gone within a blink of an eye.

“You think he’ll be okay?”

“I don’t know.” said Robin, staring at the Ghost King’s masked face.

“You think he’ll be good on the field?”

“I’m pretty sure he’s already proven himself worthy, Wally.”

“Yeah, but he was like all angry and stuff. What powers does he even have? Raising the dead? Fading into the shadows?”

“I suppose so.”

“Well, he must be really good an hide and seek then.”

* * *

 

  _“Oh my god! That’s_ so  _epic! I can’t believe you have the limited edition Hades figure! Can we trade? Please please please???” begged a ten year old Nico._

_But the other ten year old in front of him shook his head._

_“Pfft. I doubt any of your figures are good enough for Hades.” scoffed the kid, eyeing Nico’s collection of mythomagic figures in distain._

_“I’ll give you Zeus_ and _Hecate! There, two for one.”_

_The kid rolled his eyes with a sigh._

_“Anyone can get Hecate by getting the starter pack, and how did you get Zeus anyways? He’s only in the collector’s edition. I bet you just sole it off the shelf.”_

_“Hey! My sister got this for me.” The kid sneered at him._

_“My dad says its bad to lie.” He said, before getting up and walking off._

“Well you know what  _my_ dad says? That if I don’t like little shits like you I’m allowed to torture you in your afterlife.” muttered Nico, watching his ten-year-old self pick up the figures that had fallen off the bench, head bowed.

That was when he saw a girl walking towards his younger self, and Nico’s chest tightened at the sight of her face. He would never admit it, but he had nearly forgotten what his sister’s face looked like. 

_“Were the boys mean to you again?” asked Bianca softly, and young Nico nodded his head, eyes still downcast._

_“When will dad come back?” he asked._

_“Soon. I just know it. Now let’s get back to campus before Dr. Thorn finds us out after curfew.”_  

The scene shifted again, and Nico prepared himself to watch another one of his memories unfold yet again, when this time, he found himself in a cave brightly lit with torches.

“Ah, good. You’re finally here. You know how hard it was to pull you from Hypnos’ spell? That dimwit insisted that you needed to be soothed by good memories while your body gets rid of the poison.” said Hecate, rolling her eyes.

“Uh…they weren’t exactly pleasant things to remember…” he said, looking down and noticing that his clothes were tattered and torn.

“Well, you can’t really rely on gods, because if you go you will be severely disappointed.”

Even in a cave that Nico suspected to be underground, he could still hear thunder rumbling in the distance.

“Yeah yeah, flash your lightning all you want Zeus, but we all know it’s true.” said Hecate dismissively with a wave of her hand and eyes to the ceiling of the cave.

Silence came after her statement, and Nico knew Zeus had nothing to say to that.

“So…why what exactly happened?” asked the Son of Hades.

“You may want to sit down.”

And he did, sitting down on a velvet plush arm chair.

“After you…er…sucked the essence of my daughter’s life force into your sword, which sent her spirit into the court before Hades, turned out she had a poisoned knife. Tartarus poison, I don’t even know how she got her hands on it, but it cut into your side and I’m sure you know what it does.”

Nico’s questioning frown was her answer, and she stared at him.

“How long have you been at that demigod camp?” she asked.

“Officially? Three months, I think.”

“But surely, you should’ve known what happened with Zeus’ daughter, the one who turned into a tree?”

“Thalia? Was she poisoned too?”

“Well, not so much _her…_ more like her tree form. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of this, the news even reached _my_ ears when it happened.  
“A few years ago, before Kronos was defeated by the Sea Spawn, the child who was stupid enough to host Kronos poisoned Thalia’s pine with Tartarus poison; set the kill the tree and the magical border that protects your camp from monsters. The poison would’ve taken six weeks to kill the tree. Think about it, Son of Hades, six weeks for a 15 metre tall pine tree. How long do you think _you_ have?”

Nico was silent, sighing after a moment when he realised he was going to die soon.

“I’m going to die within the next 24 hours, aren’t I?” he said.

Hecate furrowed her eyebrows.

“Well, I suppose you have _a little_ over a day left, unless if you can Apollo off his lazy arse to heal you.”

“Why can’t you do it? Aren’t you the goddess of magic?”

“Not my place.” said the goddess with a shrug.

“I did your mission for you.” He pointed out, and Hecate sighed.

“Well I suppose I should do you this favour in return for you helping me. I will talk to Apollo.”

Suddenly, Nico’s surroundings began to melt away, but it didn’t fade like he was used to when he was waking.

“Thank you for completing this mission for me, Son of Hades. Your efforts were appreciated.”

And that was the last thing Nico heard when he found himself sitting in a box-like space. He blinked several times when his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the new location his dream self was teleported to, and realised he was in a court room.

One look and Nico knew he was in the Underworld. This was not the usual Judgement Pavilion where normal trials took place, if a ghost was accused of breaking the Underworld laws or when the judges were making the decision as to where to put the ghosts. This was a different building all together, and Nico had never been in it. He wondered if his father had built a new court room just for this trial. Nico was sitting on a bench made of black wood, and saw to his left was three other boxes, with shimmering forms of Thomas Jefferson and William Shakespeare sitting in them. The two turned and nodded at him, but the ghost in the box two boxes down glanced at the half-blood, before doing a double take and sneered.

“Why, hello there _my lord_ , I trust you are well?”

The ‘my lord’ was a mock, drawled in King Minos’ annoying nasal voice made it even more offending.

“Yes.” said Nico through gritted teeth, before promptly turning away to observe the room and ignore the ghost.

When Nico _actually_ looked at the size of the court, he noticed that it was far bigger than he thought. The rows and rows of benches seemed to be endless, and hundreds of ghosts were still filing in. He could see ghouls stationed at the side entrances and the back, keeping order and discipline. There was a long table between where the front bench ended and the judgment and witness boxes, as well as a box on the side. To his right was a large box, bigger than the rest and was decorated with skulls and bones. He didn’t need to look at it twice to know who that seat was for.

Finally, once the doors closed and the ghouls signalled to another spirit that Nico could not see, but sense, twenty or so ghosts, wearing clothes from all eras filed into the verdict box.

“Court will stand for Lord Hades.” called a raspy, hissing voice from one of the ghouls, and every ghost in the court room stood immediately, as the God of the Underworld shimmered into the judgement box to Nico’s right.

The god was the only being with flesh and bone, other than Nico. The ghosts sat down a few seconds after hades sat, and the god waved his hand at the ghoul by the door.

“Bring in the accused.” announced the same, ghastly voice.

Two skeleton soldiers, one clad in a gladiator’s armour, the other in a torn U.S. marine lieutenant uniform marched in, dragging a chained black figure into the room. Another skeleton soldier in a knight’s steel carried ginger cat, bound by shadow bindings. The cat hissed and tried to claw at the soldier, but even dagger-like nails would not bother a skeleton. The soldiers dropped the figure and the cat into an open space, and black tentacles appeared out of nowhere, grabbing onto the figure and securing him to the ground.

“Klarion the Witch Boy, self-proclaimed Lord of Chaos, you stand convicted of practicing the illegal arts of necromancy on the prisoner Cyrus Gold. How do you plead?”

The Witch Boy twitched, then, with a voice scarce louder than a whisper, he croaked out: “Not guilty.”

Hades glared at the slumped figure, as if trying to make him look up with his eyes, but Klarion didn’t move after. Hades sighed in annoyance.

“Court will call its first witness.”

A trembling ghost of a middle-aged woman hesitantly stepped up into the witness box. Nico noticed that she wore an orange jumpsuit, a sign that she was from the Fields of Punishment, but her appearance looked frail, with even paler than normal for a ghost skin, and sunken eyes that showed signs of severe illness from when she was still alive. Nico figured she must’ve died of some horrible disease or cancer.

“I-I—“

“Spit it out.” said Minos impatiently, and the woman flinched, before speaking in a tentative voice.

“I saw Mr Gold, m’lord. The first time he was twitching, sort of in pain but I didn’t know you can feel pain as a ghost. He screamed and fell to the ground as he worked. I wasn’t allowed to help him as I followed the rules, but then he just disappeared.”

“Did this happen often?” questioned Thomas Jefferson, leaning forth slightly in interest.

“Yes, it happened several times between a few hours.”

Nico knew that there was no sense of time in the Underworld, and days seemed only hours down here.

“Whither is the victim? Mine lord?” said Shakespeare, turning his head to Lord Hades.

The god nodded to a ghoul in the side, and it bowed, before exiting out the side door.

“The court of Hades thanks Ms. Rachel Rykel for your witness statement.”

The woman, Rachel, turned and stepped down from the box, and Nico frowned when he remembered the victim of one of Klarion’s brutal murder was called Theon Rykel.

“Court will call its next witness.”

But before the next ghost to give a statement stepped up, the back door of the court room crashed open, and the ghoul Hades’ sent out to retrieve Cyrus Gold burst through, leaning over to catch his breath.

 _Ghouls had lungs…?_ Wondered Nico; he’d never seen ghouls without their long robes before, but the demigod just assumed that it was just bones underneath the darkened hoods.

“C-Cyrus Gold…gone…” hissed the ghoul, Hades frowned and his back straightened, but just before he could say a word, Klarion, who was bound to the ground of the court, started thrashing against his binds, gasping and hissing.

“Hold him!” barked Hades, and two soldiers marched out and pinned the Witch Boy to the ground, but when he threw his head back to growl at the skeletons, Nico saw that Klarion’s face was humanoid.

His hair was black but frosted with grey, his eyes flashed and Nico couldn’t tell what the colour was, but they were certainly _not_ the eyes of the crazed Lord of Chaos…for they weren’t red.

“That’s not him.” said Nico.

Hades didn’t hear him, too busy barking commands at the ghouls and soldiers to hold down the supposed ‘Klarion the Wich Boy’.

“Father.” said Nico, with an empty reply.

“Father!” he almost yelled, but Hades only turned to his son in anger.

“We don’t have time for—“

“That’s not Klarion.” He cut in.

Hades’ frown deepened.

“Stop.” he commanded, not in a loud voice, but in a voice that even the unknown spirit on the ground obeyed.

“Who are you?”

The spirit on the ground wore Klarion’s clothes, and even the ginger cat was actually the Witch Boy’s pet.

“Cyrus Gold, m’lord.” croaked the spirit.

“Him…that Klarion bastard…found my body at th’ Slaughter Swamp. He tried t’ bring me back but it hurt like hell and the Mr. Thanatos brought me back. But he’s gone now and Klarion tried just a few moments ago to do it again, your shadows are keeping me here.” gasped out Cyrus.

“Thanatos, gone?”

Hades’ fist curled into a fist, just as two more ghouls burst into the court room.

“My lord! The prisoners! They’re escaping! Riot in the courtyard, before the fence somehow snapped in half and they’re climbing through!”

Hades disappeared into the shadows, before re-appearing next to the ghoul.

“Where?” he growled, before melting into the shadows to where the ghoul told him the riot was.

The hundreds of ghosts in the court room gasped and talked to each other in alarm. Nico had no choice but to follow his father.

They arrived at the Fields of Punishment, to see a large crowd of orange-clad humans, monsters and titans shoving at the broken fence whilst a wall of ghouls tried to hold them back.

“ALL OF YOU, BACK TO YOUR CELLS. FIVE THOUSAND MORE YEARS TO YOUR SENTENCE FOR THE LOT OF YOU THAT ARE NOT HERE FOR ETERNITY!” roared Hades, and the spirits froze and grew silent.

Hades had risen up to his full form, shadow-helm under an arm and a spear in the other. Nico didn’t dare look into his father’s glowing eyes, lest he be incinerated. But just as the prisoners went back to their punishments, Hades suddenly flashed back into human size, and his hand was to his temple.

“Father?” said Nico, a tinge of concern pooling.

“Send a party to hunt the escaped souls. Two thousand years of the flaming chamber for all of them, double the guards at the fence and send Daedalus to fix it,” said Hades through gritted teeth. “And for gods’ sake, someone get Thanatos.”

His eyes were shut, as if in pain, as his fingers rubbed his temples.

“Uh…father? Are you…?”

“Just a migraine.” said Hades, waving him off, before turning to face his son fully.

“Apollo should be done with his work by now, go on. We will discuss of this later.”

And with a wave of Hades’ hand, Nico found himself sitting up on a white hospital bed. Nico groaned at the sudden ache to his side and an Earth-splitting headache that erupted in his brain, but before he could fully register where he was, a brightly dressed boy stepped into the light of the hospital room.

“Good to see you awake, Nico di Angelo. Feeling the aster?” said Robin, and despite his ringing ears and spinning vision as his headache hit him again, the Son of Hades was pretty sure his face must’ve been one of shock and horror.


	14. Chapter 14

_A few days earlier…_

“What happened?” growled Batman as he stormed into Mount Justice’s infirmary.

Kid Flash and M’gann shrunk away from the bat-glare, while Red Tornado remained stoic while Robin’s face held an uneasy edge.

“We ran into the Ghost King while on Klarion’s trail.”

The Dark Knight turned and glared at the unconscious boy on the white hospital bed beside him; his mask was still on as was his tattered clothes.

“Robin, a word.”

M’gann shot Robin a worried look while Kid mouthed: ‘Good Luck’ to his best friend as the two young heroes walked out.

“Do you know what the public is like in Gotham? Witnesses are saying how they spotted the band of sidekicks destroying the Gotham Power Plant.”

“But Batm-“

“What did I tell you? No. Metas. In. Gotham. You know why it’s dangerous for them to be there, what if it wasn’t Klarion? What if it was the Joker? Do you know what would’ve happened if that clown got his hands on all of you? Not even Zatanna’s magic or Superboy’s strength can deal with him. What—”

“Ok ok ok, I get it. But his trail was strong and Klarion is our business.”

Batman and Robin glared at each other, before Batman, face still hardened like stone and scowl evident, asked: “Who is he?”

Robin broke the glare at last, lifting his arm and tapping on his computer.

“Not sure yet, but I did scan the black knifes on him at the Batcave.”

Batman raised a questioning eyebrow as Robin tapped through the analysis file from his wrist computer.

“The metal used is not recognised as any metal on Earth, and if touched by skin, it burns and we predict it would cause death to any who hold onto it for too long with a bare hand.

“Another thing, apparently the tracker beam that was meant for Klarion got on _him_ instead, and there was a signal from an apartment in near Crime Alley before it died.”

Batman’s expression grew even darker at the mention of the alley.

“Have you gone yet?”

“No, I only found it just as you walked in.”

Batman turned swiftly and strode out the room, and Robin took it as a sign to follow.

“What are the co-ordinates?” asked the Dark Knight as he opened the configuration screen for the zeta-beam. Robin told him, and within moments they arrived in an abandoned phone booth in the alley just across the street from the apartment building, but when the dynamic duo landed on the roof of the building, they found the roof door boarded up and closed, same with the vents. They checked the side entries, the windows, but all were boarded up.

Finally, deciding that they had no other option, the duo leapt down from the roof and landed right in front of the building, to find the front door nailed shut, with a large red and white sign on it.

_Warning: renovation in progress._

Below the sign were pictures of a hard hat, a worker’s vest and other pictures of safety equipment. Robin frowned as Batman slammed open the front door, regardless of the sign, before creeping in.

 _Well, there wasn’t any other way to get in,_ thought the Boy Wonder as he crept in beside his mentor.

It was dark inside in contrast to the moon and street light lit road outside, and the light from the outside casted long shadows of the two heroes. Ladders and drill bits were inside most of the rooms, along with stacks of timber and abandoned paint buckets. Robin found a brush with dried paint on it in one of the rooms, while Batman found an empty beer bottle in another.

When concluding that there was nothing suspicious on the ground floor, they headed upstairs through the fire stairs, and found the same thing on the second and third floor, until they reached the fourth. Three out of four of the apartments had their doors removed, and the same renovation equipment sat inside, except for the last one, where the door was sealed shut. The lock was simple, but when with professional lock-picking gear, Robin could not get it open.

“It’s nailed shut.” said Batman, before he entered a room to his right and picked up a pair of pliers’ off the ground.

The Dark Knight then pulled the nails out of the boards that were in the window frame within the room, and once they were all gone, the duo slipped out and used their grappling hook to swing to the windowsill of the room that had a sealed door. Batman did the same thing, collecting the nails in his hand and passing it to Robin, who threw them back into the room they came from. Batman finally got the last board off, and the two warily slipped into the studio apartment.

It was darker than usual, and the duo had to take out their flashlights to see properly. This apartment was different; instead of renovation equipment, it looked like someone had lived in it, and recently. A bed was in the corner, with clothes strewn on it along with a black backpack. The wardrobe was open, revealing black clothes, and a fridge sat in the corner.

Batman went to the fridge to open it, and was shocked to see that it was working. He could feel the cold air hitting his face as he examined the food on the inside…food that was fresh. It didn’t make any sense. If the building was I renovation, all the power should’ve been cut off… _unless_ … Batman pushed the fridge away from the wall, and his suspicion was proven. The fridge was magical, because there were no cords or power plugs attached at all.

Meanwhile, Robin emptied the backpack on the bed gingerly, as if expecting something to jump at him, but all the contents were was just books and a pen, along with a crumpled piece of paper. Robin unfolded it, and found it to be a note, _dear parents/guardians, as a part of the year 8 physical education course, there will be an excursion to the Gotham Rock Climbing centre…_ Robin’s eyes widened when he saw the school crest at the top corner of the note, before reaching down with shaking hands at the tattered white shirt and tie at the bottom of the clothes pile.

 _No…it can’t be…_ But it was; the Gotham Academy crest was on the white shirt and tie. He went through the books with frenzied hands, and found most of the exercise books to be empty, until he saw a Italian workbook with a piece of paper folded inside. _This project is to be complete by two people_ … _oral on an interesting mythological story…_ Underneath the topic title were two names… _Dick Grayson and Nico di Angelo_.

* * *

 

_No…that was not possible…how did he know my name…_

Nico’s expression told his thoughts, which were wild and alarming.

 _How did Robin know my name? Only people from camp and the wretched Gotham Academy people knew_ …

That was when Nico recovered from his shock, face morphing into a glare while Robin smirked.

“You can’t run,” stated the Boy Wonder plainly. “You have a lot of questions to answer.”

But Nico barely heard him as he noticed something about Robin that he didn’t before. The boy had a similar stature as him, with raven black hair and all, but his smirk…he’d seen it before…somewhere. That was when realisation hit him.

“I have no questions to answer, Dick.”

As soon as he said it, Nico knew he had made the right assumption; it was his turn to smirk. Robin paled, and was about to say something but the Ghost King had beaten him to it.

“Not many people in your world know my name.”

“ _Your_ world? What do you mean? Are you a demon? You obviously have powers and are magical, and you’re not from this world.”

“You’re more wrong than you think. I’m _not_ from _your_ world, but we live in the same world.”

Robin was confused, but Nico continued speaking.

“A demon? I wouldn’t go there, and as for the magic part, no.”

That was when Nico knew he should say no more, lest he threaten the existence of demigods by telling the mortal world of the gods. Robin opened his mouth to say something, but before the words could come out, the door burst open and in came Black Canary, Wonder Woman and Red Tornado.

“Leave us, Boy Wonder.” Robin frowned, as if to object, but Batman appeared at the doorway and gestured for the young hero.

Robin stood grudgingly, glaring at Nico before turning and stalking out. Black Canary had a clipboard in hand, while Red Tornado closed the door behind Robin.

 _Uh oh, not good_.

Nico knew he was going to be interrogated, but when he tried to shadow-travel away, he felt a wave of nausea rush over him when he tried to gather his energy.

“ _Rest, Son of Hades_.” said a voice in Ancient Greek, and Nico was startled to see that Wonder Woman was the speaker.

“ _Did Robin tell everyone?_ ” asked Nico, glaring and making mental death threats aimed at a certain vigilante, but the princess shook her head.

“ _Not him, no one here knows but me. I have heard much about you and the Son of Poseidon’s war. How the prophecy came true and how the titan Kronos turned Manhattan into a war zone. You should know that you and your father’s efforts were told all around Themyscara._ ”

Themyscara…Nico had heard that name before, and he closed his eyes briefly to recall when.

“ _You’re an Amazon_.” he said, but frowned when he looked into her electricity blue eyes…eyes so blue that only one other person he knew had it.

“ _And a daughter of Zeus._ ”

Wonder Woman was surprised, “ _Very good, you are clever, I see. I have heard from Lady Hecate of your mission, and a few days before I had spoken to Lord Apollo who came to heal you. You are feeling better, I presume?_ ”

Nico was, but he took the square of ambrosia in wonder Woman’s hand. The dull ache on his side instantly vanished, and he sat a little straighter.

“ _Do not worry, the young heroes here do not know your true identity, and your secret is safe with me. But know this, Son of Hades – these are good children; they will whole-heartedly give everything they have to save the people of this world. While there are consequences if a mortal knows you are from the mythical world, sometimes you just have to go with your instincts.”_

Nico raised an eyebrow in question, “ _The Justice League knows about you,_ ”

“ _Only my closest allies, Batman, Superman, The Flash and Martian Manhunter.”_

“ _How? How can you trust them?”_

_“I can because they saved my life on more than one occasion, and would do so again without hesitation. I trust them with my life. Even with the stakes so high and the cost was dear, I took a gamble and told them my secret. How well do you trust your new allies?”_

At Nico’s silence, and Wonder Woman chuckled, despite the grim atmosphere of the room.

“ _Do not worry. It will take time, but you will learn that perhaps this team is the family you belong in.”_

Nico stared at his sweat-sodden sheets from his earlier hallucinations; suddenly feeling like the whole world was on his shoulders (not literally).

“You do not need to interrogate, Black Canary. I have already asked him what we need to know.”

Black Canary looked ready to argue, glancing uneasily at Nico, but at Wonder Woman’s stern look she backed off.

“Rest well.” said Wonder Woman in English, before turning for the door.

Just as she reached the door handle, Nico spoke up.

 _“Thank you._ ” he said quietly, and Wonder Woman smiled at him.

_“I will always help a family member in need, whether they be one of the light or the dark.”_

* * *

 

Skeletal hands gripped his underarms, and Nico was shoved harshly back down the hallway that led to the throne room of Hades’ castle.

“ _No one enters_.” rasped the two skeletal warriors who stood guard outside the great double poplar-wood door.

Nico gritted his teeth as his hand flew to the mostly (but not quite) healed wound on his side, as the skeletons had grazed it with their hard and bony fingers.

“Move. This is the last time I’m ordering you to before I fling your sorry bony arses down to Tartarus.”

But the guards paid him no mind, frozen as a statue once again after they ripped Nico free from his own shadow. He had aimed to visit his father in the throne room, but was abruptly interrupted by them. Growling, Nico unleashed his sword that held the key of Hades within, and slashed at one of them. It was like hitting a marble column; these skeletons were invulnerable.

 _Figures, Hades probably made sure they were unbreakable_.

“Let him in.” The voice of Hades boomed suddenly, and the two skeletal guards each took a step back in sync, and the door opened.

Nico stormed into the throne room, each step echoing on the marble floors, about to rant about the guards when he noticed Hades’ hand was rubbing his temple, as if in pain.

“Father? Are you alright?”

“A migraine.”

The Son of Hades frowned; unless if another god (or goddess…*ahem* Athena) was about to burst forth from his head, it was technically improbable for Hades to have a migraine or any sickness of any kind. Nico didn’t know what test his father played at this time.

“…did you want ambrosia?”

Hades waved his other hand at him, “No, that won’t be necessary.”

Silence hung in the air, with Nico awkwardly shuffling on his feet, before Hades closed his eyes and sat up.

“Thanatos has not been found.”

“What?! How? Where else would the God of Death be? His wings would be kind of a giveaway.”

“Randolph thinks he’s just on his walks.”

Edmund Randolph was Hades’ current secretary, and Nico didn’t even know Hades had one until he ran into the ghost in the hallway, with the spirit apologising profusely. Well, the demigod supposed ruling the Underworld was hard work.

“But what about the spirits?” “They’re escaping.”

Shocked silence followed, before Nico, with widened eyes, gulped.

“Ghosts… _escaping?_ ”

Hades nodded, his lips a fine line.

“Is it Klarion?”

“No, but I suspect it started from him, then some mysterious force is behind it as well. I felt a disturbance within the security already since the end of the war, and Klarion only sped it up.”

“What do you want me to do, father?”

“Nothing. I have another mission for you.”

Nico angrily curled his hands into fists, instinct nearly made him stomp his foot like a child.

“ _You_ of all people should know what’s at stake here—”

Hades’ eyes flashed, and Nico could tell he was getting angry.

“This is more important than the security in the Underworld, and I will not have you defy me as you have done over and over. You have nearly proven yourself that you are not the failure as your sister would’ve _never_ been, but once again you are twisting my judgement of you with your silly ideas. How can you contain a never-ending wave of spirits trying to get free? You forget Nico, you’re only human.”

That struck him to the bone, and Nico could say nothing in retort.

“What’s the mission?” he grated, glaring at his shoes.

“Follow me.” Hades stood, and Nico grudgingly reached out and placed a reluctant hand to Hades’ shoulder, and the throne room melted around them into vast green plains.

As he was in a dream state, Nico’s form was transparent in the sunshine, as was his father’s shadowy figure. Nico looked around, but saw nothing, until he took a step forwards and his eyes widened when he saw the buildings beneath him. There were several temples and pavilions, with a river cutting through the all the buildings beneath. Little purple dots were moving down below, and Nico knew they were people.

“What is this?” he asked in awe; it looked a bit like Camp half-blood, though more organised.

He glanced up when he got no reply, and frowned when he saw Hades with his hand to his temple once again.

“Father? Are you…” but the Son of Hades trailed off in shock when his father’s formed flicked, and changed completely.

Instead of robes, Hades now wore a black suit and tie. His long hair was combed and clean, and his beard was neatly trimmed. The image lasted for about 5 seconds before the god’s form flicked back to what he looked like moments ago, in blood-red robes.

“Gods’ dammit, it’s happening.” grunted Hades, and Nico’s eyes widened once again for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

_No…it couldn’t be…_

“Is this…what I think it is?”

Nico had only heard stories from walking around Elysium once, even seen some, but he assumed they were from 12 BC, not the modern age.

“This…it’s the Roman camp, isn’t it?”

“Camp Jupiter.” Hades grunted.

“W-what did you want me to do?” Nico’s voice shook with nervousness.

“Lead them. Show them. Guide them and teach them our ways.”

“Our ways? Why?”

“The war, a new war is coming…”

Hades’ pained voice began to waver and fade, and Nico knew he was waking up.

“How? Is this really just a dream or—”

“ _San Fransisco_.”

“Father…wait!”

“And your sister…Bianca…chose rebirth…”

* * *

 

Nico shot up in his bed in the borrowed room within Mount Justice, covered in cold sweat. He shakily swung his legs to the side, and dropped his head in his hands.

 _Bianca…_ rebirthed?

He couldn’t even begin to comprehend the fact that Roman demigods existed, angrily picking up the nearest object – one of his daggers (how did that get there?) and threw it at the door on the opposite side.

He had to get to the Underworld immediately, but as he dressed in a hurry, there was a knock on the door, before it slid open.

“What?” snapped Nico, not realising that the shadows mirrored his emotions, and his mask seemed to be horrifyingly melting off his face.

M’gann stepped back, horrified, looking at him in utter fear, when Superboy pushed back her and crossed his brawny arms.

“Training. Now.”

“I don’t have time for your stupid training.” growled Nico, slipping on his robe and sheathing his knives.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Out. I’m not your prisoner, and you certainly can’t keep me here. Leave me alone.”

“You said you’d join the team, or do you just really want to screw us over. You work for Klarion, don’t you? I knew it! You—”

“Superboy, that’s enough.” came Black Canary’s voice, pushing him aside.

“What he means is-”

“You people want me to show you all of my powers, capabilities, so you’ll know how to kill me when I do something you don’t like.”

Nico knew he was being a total bitch about it, but he was too upset over the news of his sister, and he had to go find out if his father lied.

_And there’s also the Roman camp…_

“Look, how about just one sparring match? Once you can get…say Aqualad to his back, you can go?”

Nico seethed, but in his mind he knew not to disappoint Wonder Woman by heavily injuring the team for getting in his way, so he gave a tight, reluctant nod.

“Fine. One.”

Black Canary led him out to the big open area in the heart of Mount Justice, where the other members of the team stood around the lit-up floor.

“No weapons, but you may use your powers if you need. Don’t feel bad if you-”

 _Smack_.

Before anyone could blink, Aqualad was on his back, stunned, as Nico stood from the judo pose he was in.

“Bye.” And with that, Nico sauntered out towards the zeta-tubes that Wonder Woman had shown him how to access a few days earlier.

_Ghost King, B27_

“You reckon he’ll be back?” said Kid Flash, still bewildered by what had just occurred.

“Doubt it.” Replied Robin, glaring at the ground, in an expression that some could call defeat.


	15. Chapter 15

_Come on…please…_

Nico ran along the streets of Elysium hurriedly, glancing around the corner of every building that was there, glaring into every window. Elysium was like downtown Manhattan, only with no crime at all and everyone was always happy. Parties were held every day and night, with souls drinking Underworld alcohol that was rumoured to taste like whatever type of drinks the souls wanted. Heck, souls could get drunk, even pass out, but hangovers were also unheard of.

Nico knew he would never make it here.

Though as proven by Bianca, he technically could get here if he asked his father, but this was no place for him. Everyone was simply _too happy_.

He reached the last place that was on his list, storming up the porch and slam his fist on the door twice. Seconds later, the smiling, transparent face of Luke Castellan greeted him.

“Hey, Nico. What's up?” he said with an easy smile.

“Where’s Bianca.” growled Nico, glaring up into Luke’s pale – even paler then when he was alive – blue eyes.

Luke had decided to stay in Elysium for a month before his rebirth, but Nico had a feeling Luke may stay for longer, seeing how content he looked. This didn’t mean Nico thought he deserved to be there though; just because of what Annabeth and Percy told him about that day on Mount Olympus, about how Luke had been the true hero, it didn’t mean Nico didn’t despise him any less than when he was Kronos’ host.

“I haven’t seen her lately…come to think of it, it feels like I haven’t seen her in years! Time doesn’t have meaning down here.” He chuckled, while Nico just scowled.

Luke laughed, patting his shoulder good-naturedly, “You should ask Beckendorf, saw him and Silena just a few minutes ago, you’ll probably catch them further down the street, but just hope you don’t walk in on them…well—”

“I get it.”

Nico turned, and strode off the porch.

“Bye…I guess?” Nico didn’t even acknowledge the farewell as he sped-walk towards the edge of the 20-21st century demigod neighbourhood.

“Hi Nico!” called a high-pitched voice, and Nico turned, to see just the couple he was looking for, hand-in-hand and with smiles on their faces.

“Have you seen Bianca?” Nico cut straight to the chase.

He was normally civilly formal to Beckendorf, maybe even genuinely…friendly…but only when Nico was in a good mood, and Nico was _never_ in a good mood. The blacksmith frowned, “No, I don’t believe I have, actually. She was at the beach with Silena just last week, but we haven’t seen her since.”

* * *

 

Nico clenched his jaw at the Head of the ghouls’ airy words, his glare nearly as dark as his clothes.

“Show me the list again.”

The ghoul handed over a magical HPad that never ran out of battery to Nico, and the Son of Hades swiped down the list of escaped spirits irritably.

“I don’t give a flying fuck who’s escaped right now, just show me the log of Bianca di Angelo.” he growled.

The ghoul silently, took the HPad back, tapped the screen a few times with his gloved hands (the only purpose the gloves had was for it to be possible for the ghoul to use the touch-screen, as bones didn’t really work with the HPad) before handing it back to Nico. ‘ _Rebirthed list_ ’ was written at the top of the page of the Pages document in Ancient Greek, and millions of names popped up every second, as the list updated simultaneously.

Nico paused the update by disconnecting it to the Underworld Hi-fi (Brought to you by Hephaestus) network that was only connected the devices for record keeping, before scrolling down until he reached the time frame when Hades’ had told him the news.

His eyes flew over every name, but he only had to glance at his sister’s name before he closed his eyes and shoved the HPad back into the ghoul’s bony hands. Nico tossed the ghoul a drachma, before shadow travelling back towards the front yard of Hades’ castle. He dropped to his knees, curling into a ball as he felt his tears dribble down his face. Nico had not cried since Bianca’s death, but now he was over her _real_ death.

_I will never see her again._

* * *

 

Nico didn’t know how long he’d been there, but after what seemed like hours, Nico got up, and slowly trudged through towards the Fields of Asphodel. He needed to clear his mind. Upon entering the fields, spirits immediately crowded around him, some even going so far as touching him as they wailed.

‘ _Help us_!’

‘ _I don’t remember!’_

_‘My lord, please!’_

Nico flicked his hand in annoyance, perhaps a bit _too_ forceful, and all the ghosts that crowded him were flung away. He glared at the ones who looked tempted to approach him, but none bothered him anymore as he continued his stroll around the fields.

It was peaceful here, he supposed, regardless of the annoying ghosts trailing after him. The fields seemed never-ending here, but he knew he could leave by simply shadow-travelling away. He continued slowly, mind lost in thoughts, until he realised he had somehow wound up standing in front of a poplar tree in the middle of the fields.

He frowned, not remembering seeing a tree anywhere near him just a moment ago, but something made him peer around the tree. Standing on the other side of the trunk was the spirit of a girl, no more than a year or two older then him. Nico blinked…was it just his mind not seeing bright colours in days, or was this spirit more solid than usual? Granted, she was still translucent, but she seemed more…grounded, somehow.

Her ghostly hair was a mass of curls, and her dark-grey ghostly skin told Nico that she probably had dark coloured skin when she was alive. She wore a 1940’s style posh girl’s school uniform.

“What’s your name?” he asked, testing the waters.

Ghosts in the Fields of Asphodel never remembered their past lives, only roamed with confusion and despair.

“My name is Hazel Levesque.”

No ‘my lord’…that was new, and surprisingly pleasant.

“When did you die?” he asked, and Hazel turned to look at him, seeming surprised to see a human in flesh and blood standing in front of her.

“1942. My mother was to be a blood-sacrifice for one of Terra’s giants. I stopped her just in time.”

Her voice was soothing and calm…much like…much like Bianca’s. Nico felt his stomach clench at the thought.

“Terra?”

“The Earth Mother, goddess of the Earth. She tried to rise from her slumber by using my mother and my power. She failed.”

Nico was shock, for he had never heard of a goddess named Terra before, or that she was trying to rise. If Hazel had died in 1942, then goddess had tried to rise when he was still trapped in the Lotus Hotel.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Nico di Angelo, Son of...Pluto.”

Nico didn’t know how the Roman alias of his father had sprouted from his lips, but he went along with it.

“Truly? My father was Pluto also.”

Nico froze, eyes widening. He only said Pluto by instinct, but this ‘Hazel’ actualy thought…or _knew_ that her father was Pluto. _How?_ Roman gods were said to be mere adaptions from the Greeks… _or perhaps they were simply a different form of them…_ _and Terra_ …The Earth Mother…Nico wasn’t the best student, never rarely ever showed up to Monster fighting class at camp, but he knew enough that the Greek goddess of the Earth was Gaia. She was classified as the most dangerous primordial, the oldest and most powerful.

“You stopped Gaia from rising?”

That was when Nico also realised…Hazel was his half-sister, and she definitely had something to do with the Roman camp Hades had shown him. He failed to save Bianca, but here was his second chance…to save his sister once again, just a different one, and Nico was not going to let the opportunity pass by again.

Before Hazel could reply, Nico held out his hand.

“Come with me, Hazel Levesque.”

Hazel blinked in confusion, but didn’t even have the time to register the statement before Nico grabbed her ghostly arm and shadow-travelled her towards the exit of the fields.

Alecto and the other two furies were perched on top of the broken gates of the Underworld that led to the dim light of the surface world, and they screeched and occasionally swooped down to toss an escaped ghost towards the Fields of Punishment. An army of ghouls formed a wall to block the never-ending waves of spirits trying to push free.

“What are you—”

“Father will forgive us later.” he said, before merging them both within the shadows, and as he neared the light of ‘the surface, Hazel’s arm began to solidify.

* * *

 

“Why?”

Reyna glared at him over the document she was reading, “Because she isn’t qualified. You’re lucky to even be in the camp as an ambassador, by orders of Pluto, but if you mean to add her to the Legion, she _must_ seek Lupa first.”

Nico’s hands curled into a fist under the table, but chose not to do anything stupid. This was the Roman _praetor_ , and he didn’t want to screw up the relations between the Greek and Roman demigod relation already, even if they didn’t know he was a Greek in the first place.

“Where is it?”

“Sonoma Valley.”

Nico was silent, before sighing and standing.

“Thank you for your time, _praetor_ Reyna.” he said.

From the short time he’d been at Camp Jupiter (short meaning around 5 hours), he’d learn to show the utmost respect to Reyna. Jason Grace, on the other hand, was more easy-going. He was like Percy, only just a little bit skinner but leaner.

“Good luck, ambassador of Pluto.”

_One month later…_

“You made it! Well done!” said Jason with a smile as he patted a battered-looking Hazel on her shoulder.

“Knew you could do it.” said Nico with a small smile, and Hazel returned it with a hug, only to spring back.

“Sorry, I forgot you didn’t like—”

“It’s okay, I know.” said the Son of Hades, but she was forgiven.

Nico had been running back and forth form the Underworld and to Camp Jupiter for the last month as Hazel trained at the Wolf House to join the Legion. Hades, by now, was always spaced out, his regular migraine so bad he’d once told Nico it felt like _three_ gods were about to burst from his head. They’d had snippets of conversation, but Nico could rarely talk to Hades for any longer than three minutes before the god would flicker into Pluto, speaking Latin before flicking back to Hades, and so on. But he’d gathered enough to know that the Greeks and Romans were kept apart for a reason, and that he was not to say anything about his world lest he start another civil war.

Dinner passed, and late into the night, Nico announced his fatigue and headed towards his room, but a sudden thought flashed in his mind. The demigod unpinned his toga, tossing it onto his bed, before donning his robe and t-shirt and shadow-travelled to Central Park in New York City.

He headed towards the pile of rocks that was an entrance to the Underworld, and was relieved to see that it was undisturbed. This was one of the only few entrances left that were untouched, surprisingly. More and more ghosts were escaping, at least ten a day, but Nico wasn’t allowed to help due to his new mission, and Hades was nowhere near in condition to even have a full conversation now. He turned and strode through the empty park, watching his breath fog in front of him as a chilly breeze caused Nico to pull onto his robe a little tighter. His eyes drifted to a large screen on a building a few metres away, and on it was a news report of how Superman had yet again saved people from a house fire.

_Two worlds…so close yet so far…_

Nico supposed he was the first Greek demigod since World War II to even know of the Roman demigods, but he knew he was _definitely_ the first person ever to be a demigod _and_ technically be a member of the junior Justice League.

The news reporter then announced that there was a mere two days and three hours before New Years’, and apparently even the Hall of Justice was covered in tinsel that _someone_ (cough cough The Flash cough cough) had done it overnight within three seconds.

Nico pulled his eyes from the screen, and was about to shadow-travel back to Camp Jupiter when he saw a ginger cat sitting just two metres in front of him. The cat licked its paws, before raising its head and its glowing red eyes watched him.

“If it isn’t Nico the try-hard.”

Nico spun around in a blur of black, glaring at the bored looking Klarion who was checking his nails.

“I’m going to kick your sorry ass down to the deepest pits of Tartarus, and then—”

“Yeah, yeah, save the trash talk for later. I have work to do. You must be wondering how I got away from those stupid chains. Too bad I don’t have time to explain the wonderful details, but I’m sure you already have an idea how I got away. I’m not called the Lord of Chaos for nothing.”

Klarion’s voice was like a thousand knives scraping against steel. Nico opened his mouth to say more, but Klarion spoke first.

“Tomorrow at dusk, you’re going to come to Santa Prisca like the good boy you are, or else the your team of Justice League babies will know your little secret.”

Nico froze, blinked as his blood turned cold.

“ _What?_ ”

Klarion rolled his eyes with a sigh.

“Do I really need to repeat it? You demigods are _so_ dumb. You have to come for a play date tomorrow at Santa Prisca, at dusk. If you don’t, everyone will know you’re the devil’s spawn and kill you. Simple. Now if you’ll ex _cuse_ me, I have another job to do.”

Nico gritted his teeth with a grunt, pulling out his knife in a rush and threw it at Klarion without hesitation, but Klarion had already warped away in a red portal, his eardrum piercing crackling trailing after him.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, here's the last chapter of the story. Would just like to point out though: please watch Episode 25 of Young Justice Season 1 prior to reading this chapter, as the events take place half-way through the episode and I have borrowed some of the dialogue in it.

**GOTHAM CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT**  
_Gotham City, NJ_  
**INCIDENT REPORT #12570192  
Case Title: The Demon Grave-Robbing**  
**Location(s):** Cathedral Square, Amusement Park, Slaughter Swamp, Wayne Enterprises, S.T.A.R. labs, Gotham Power Plant, Ace Chemicals  
**Date/Time Reported:** October 30 th, 19:42 EDT   
**Date/Time Occurred:** Started October 26 th, 19:26 EDT  
**Incident Type/Offense:** Break in robbery, grave robbing  
**Reporting Officer:** Detective Blake            
**Approving Officer:** Commissioner J.Gordon  
****PERSONS

Role: ?           Name:            Reported as _Ghost King_    Sex: M            Race: ?          Age: ?            DOB: ?

** OFFENDERS **

Name:            Klarion the Witch Boy         Sex: M            Race: ?          Age: ?             DOB: ?

**Vehicles:** NIL

** Narrative: **

Stolen serum from S.T.A.R. labs, mixed with fungus-infested skeletal remains from Slaughter Swamp created a zombie-like creature, which called himself _Solomon Grundy_. The monster was brought to life with electricity from Gotham Power Plant, but was reportedly annihilated by the sidekicks of the Justice League. Lieutenant Blake concluded that Klarion the Witch Boy’s intentions were unclear, but it was evident that all he wanted to do was wreak havoc in Gotham City.

CASE IS NOW ~~UNRESOLVED~~ /CLOSED/ ~~UNDETERMINED~~

* * *

 

“ _Vicky Vale reporting live from the Gotham City Police Department. Yes, Cat, it seems to be quite the crowd tonight with so many young heroes spotted in Gotham just a month ago. It seems to be somehow linked to Klarion the super villain. But what is he doing in Gotham? Oh! Looks like Commissioner Gordon has arrived to give a statement!”_

_“This case is linked to the robbery of S.T.A.R. labs and Wayne Enterprises. However, with the ‘villain on the loose in Gotham’, as the Daily Planet put it, there is no evidence given that a supernatural being has been in Gotham. Therefore we will not confirm until we are absolutely certain.”_

_“Commissioner Gordon! Was it true that the band of Justice League sidekicks were at the Gotham Power Plant?”_

_“Er…we are not certain if they were just a bunch of kids out late at night. Again, I will not say as there is not enough evidence to—”_

_“Commissioner Gordon! We have eyewitness reports of the sighting of a black figure appearing around Gotham, wearing a black robe and skull shirt and holding a kitchen knife. What does the CCTV footage of Ace Chemicals say about that?”_

* * *

 

“…ordered from above, and executed by their master strategist: mua!” said the Riddler, a smug smirk on his face.

Robin surveyed the enemies; Riddler, Shimmer, Mammoth and twenty or so soldiers with Apokoliptan weapons.

_Great…_

“ _Miss Martian, is everyone linked?”_ asked Aqualad telepathically.

“ _Yes.”_

_“Go.”_

At once, the Team sprung into action, Artemis running for Cheshire while the others went the others. Zatanna conjured up a snowstorm to disorientate the soldiers, while Kid Flash was already taking them down one by one.

* * *

 

Nico observed from within the shadows (literally), finding the battle surprisingly interesting as he watched Rocket fly several soldiers into the air, before dropping them down to knock them out cold.

The half-blood had to, no matter how grudgingly; admit that this team knew their shit. They fought with vigour, with a…passion, of sorts, yet they were also controlled and helped each other out.

Nico could tell they were using their intrusive telepathic conversation chat room again, as he noted how Robin would sometimes stare at Zatanna for a few seconds, while she stared back. He figured they were probably having a mental conversation as they fought…or they could simply be ogling each other, either reason was too over-rated for the demigod.

The Son of Hades was just about to leave, deciding the go visit and possibly tell them a secret that could destroy the Gods some other time, when he noticed Superboy dash behind a damaged aeroplane wing and stuck red sticker onto his forearm. The half-Kryptonian stilled for a moment, before shooting up into the top of the dome like a bullet, heading for the huge mammoth-like thing.

_Interesting…_

Nico shrugged, he’d seen monsters three times the size. Nico’s eyes swept across the battle-dome, shortly regarding a duel between Artemis and some girl with a Cheshire cat mask when something else caught his eye. It was Robin, taking out three soldiers at the same time, not seeming to notice a fourth, who was crawling on the ground with a crushed leg and was raising his red alien-looking gun.

Without thinking, Nico held off a warning on the tip of his tongue as he shadow-travelled into the fray.

* * *

 

Robin reacted as soon as he saw the flash of red. He’d just taken down three soldiers, and had just noticed a fourth that was posed to shoot him. He raised a bird-a-rang, intended to throw it before the man shot when a blur of black flashed in front of him.

Robin’s eyes widened when he saw the dazed man in the snow, and a boy dressed in all black next to him.

“Nico?”

Indeed it was. Robin would recognise him anywhere.

Nico wore his traditional black robe, black combat boots and cargo pants, along with a black skull shirt beneath. A black gladiator mask covered his face, and in his hands were two black daggers; he looked like Grim Reaper’s son. An enraged yell broke across the fighting, and Robin turned abruptly, to see Superboy on a berserk, grabbing Mammoth by the collar and flying him up to the top of the dome.

_Wait, flying?_

“ _SB, you’re flying!”_

* * *

 

The fighting stopped soon enough, with the Team finally acquiring Cheshire’s case that was filled with what looked like nano-bio-technology.

“Is it always like this?” asked Rocket, raising at brow at the squirming Riddler on the ground.

Once Zatanna stopped the Snowstorm, the Team gathered around the wreckage, with Miss Martian congratulating everyone’s efforts out loud when she stopped with a gasp.

“W-what is _he_ doing here?”

Nico glared at her from behind his mask, gripping his knife tightly, biting back a rude comment.

“He saved me, and he’s a part of this team too.”

Superboy glared at him, “I thought you were too good for our training. If you’re a part of this team you should at least tell us if you’re going to bail for a month.”

“I’m not sorry, I had important things to do.”

“Important enough to do instead of possibly saving thousands of lives? This team isn’t just a place you deck out on for whenever you’re bored. If you’re only here to mess around or to tip off the Light then you go screw off.”

“Superboy that’s enough.” scolded Aqualad, but Nico waved him off.

“No keep going, I’m sure he needs to let the PMS out after his dose of super-human hormones.”

The Team looked confused at this, but Superboy paled, staring at Nico in alarm while the demigod smirked.

“Are you willing to join the team for good? Is that why you came?”

_No, I don’t have time for this group that wants to dedicate their time and effort, and even_ lives _to save arrogant and annoying mortals_ , “Yes. I’ve thought long and hard and decided I want to…um…help you save the world.” _From psycho mortals who are even more pathetic than the worms in the Earth_ … _and because I owe Wonder Woman my life._

As he’d discovered just a few days ago, if Wonder Woman did not force two pomegranate seeds down his throat, the poison would’ve reached his heart before Apollo even stepped into the cave.

“Welcome to the Team!” said Robin, a bit _too_ cheerfully, and the only response the young vigilante got was an awkward applause from Rocket.

“I am _not_ going in that thing.”

Miss Martian looked hurt, but Nico couldn’t care less. There was no freaking way he was going to fly in a gods’ forsaken alien space ship. Zeus would blast his arse out of the sky and all the way out into space.

“I’ve been to your cave before, I know where it is.”

“No. I don’t trust him there by himself.” said Superboy flatly, crossing his arms with a frown.

“Like it or not, I can get there anytime I want.”

The half-Kryptonian dashed in front of the half-blood with inhuman speed, picking Nico up by the shirt. Within a blink of an eye, Nico melted into the shadows and reappeared behind him. With a yell, Superboy charged, and Nico raised his daggers to fight, but was stopped when Aqualad and Artemis restrained Superboy while Miss Martian telepathically disarmed Nico, earning herself a dark glare.

“Enough! You guys are a team now, and I don’t even remember you treating any of us like this when we first joined! Superboy, you need to chill out.” exclaimed Rocket, and that stopped him.

“Let’s just get back.”

“I still don’t trust him.”                                   

“I’ll race him!” exclaimed Kid Flash.

“First one there gets M’gann’s cookies!”

“Cookies? You’re on.”

“3, 2, 1, go!” and the speedster was off, while Nico disappeared with a smirk.

* * *

 

“Tell me if this sounds familiar: You hacked league systems, disobeyed protocols, and endangered your lives. _And_ your initiative resulted in the capture of three escaped felons, proving Warden Strange runs Belle Reve as a cover for criminal activity…well done.”

Batman regarded the members of the Team with a glare, but there was a glint in his eye. However, when his gaze landed on Nico, they narrowed.

“Then there’s this.”

The Dark Knight’s gaze lingered on him for a few more seconds, before they landed on the briefcase next to him.

“We’ll take it back to the Watch Tower for further examination.”

After Black Canary and Icon zeta-beamed away, Robin spoke up.

“You realise we were set up.”

“Yes,” agreed Aqualad, “Cheshire and Riddler were tipped.”

Artemis pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “Not the mole thing again.”

Nico raised a brow, Rocket voicing his thoughts.

“Mole thing? _Again?_ ”

“We had intel that there was a traitor on the team.”

“Mainly Artemis, M’gann or me.” Superboy cut in.

“It is more complicated than that, but your recent behaviour does concern me. Your attack on mammoth nearly got Artemis killed.” said Aqualad.

“You mean he’s not always like that? I seem to recall him being just as irrational as he was with me last month.” drawled Nico with a raised brow.

Suddenly, Superboy leaned over, as if having a migraine. Nico rolled his eyes, he’d seen his father have too many, but at the same time he heard a loud screeching noise from the corner. Shooting up to stand straighter, Nico’s eyes darted around the room, and saw the Team to be staring at Superboy in concern, their expressions…frozen. Like time itself had frozen.

“Pssst. Over here death boy.”

Nico whipped around to see Klarion leaning against the wall, in a position much like the one Nico was in moments ago. The half-blood wasted no time and unleashed his re-forged sword that no longer contained the special Key of Hades, and lunged at the Witch boy with no hesitation.

Klarion squeaked and teleported to the other side of the room, the Team frozen in time and oblivious.

“I’m only here to remind you, jeez. Remember, Santa Prisca at dusk, or else you can say goodbye to those gods of yours.”

And he was gone with a burst of smoke, time un-freezing around Nico.

“Ghost King?” said M’gann with a frown, wondering how in hell he’d gotten to the other side of the room within a blink and with his sword out.

“I—”

“There’s something I need to do.” exclaimed Superboy.

There was a pause, before Superboy took a deep breath and rubbed the back of his head.

“Last month, on Thanksgiving, I went back to Cadmus…found a few things out…”

Nico tuned out then, only catching the words ‘human father’ and ‘Lex Luthor’, whatever the Hades that meant. He wasn’t sure he trusted this team enough, if _at all_ with his secret.

“…he’s summoned me to Santa Prisca.”

Nico froze, _so there must be a gathering there, for that fucking Klarion to tell everyone._ Great. As if Nico didn’t have enough pressure already.

After Superboy gave his ‘confession’, Artemis came forward, and told the team of her heritage of criminals.

_’Least your dad isn’t the God of the Underworld._

“Who’s next?” said Kid Flash, and M’gann stepped forward.

_So this is like the time where everyone’s telling everyone his or her secrets?_

Nico cursed the three sisters of fate, imagining them crackling over their socks as they cut their yarn, raising the numbers of ghosts in the Underworld with each snip.

M’gann suddenly transformed into a huge alien monster, and for normal person would’ve been shocked, much like the Team, but Nico had seen too many and barely raised an eyebrow. He was about to continue on examining his sword when her voice cut through into his head.

“ _I realised you would never accept me for who I am.”_

Nico gritted his teeth, about to tell her to get out of his head, that he didn’t really give a damn when Aqualad’s voice spoke first.

“M’gann, did we really seem so shallow?”

At this, Nico rolled his eyes.

_Yes_.

After a heart-felt moment between M’gann and Superboy, which made Nico want to gag as it reminded him of a _certain_ couple back at Camp, Kid Flash clapped his hands together.

“So, I take it we go to Santa Prisca to kick some ass, since we know everyone’s not a mole now?”

“We need a plan. They do not know that we know each other’s secrets, so we could use that against them. We’ll send in Superboy, Miss Martian and Artemis first, then we’ll hide in the forest nearby until Artemis signals us.”

“Alrightly, I’m game.” said Kid Flash, casually throwing his arm around Artemis’ shoulder as the Team began to head off towards the bio-ship.

They seemed to have forgotten Nico, and he opened his mouth, before shutting it and grinding his teeth.

_Now or never, di Angelo._

* * *

 

“So the Injustice League was just a distraction, you two have been behind everything from the start.” said Superboy, realisation on his face.

Lex Luthor couldn’t have looked more proud of himself at the moment.

“A flattering notion, son. But we have many friends.”

A helicopter flew overhead, and lowered the ground just metres away from the group.

“This one of your friends now?”

“No my boy, one of _yours._ ”

The door opened, and Artemis was the first to step out.

“Artemis?”

She sauntered towards the group, Cheshire and Sportsmaster trailing behind her.

“The hero thing wasn’t working out. You get how it is, no trust.”

A pause, before Artemis spoke her rehearsed line.

“ _This_ is where I belong.”

“It’s a fast growing club,” said Queen Bee, and the Bio-ship stopped just above them, and Miss Martian descended from it slowly. She stage-gasped at the sight of her teammates, but was convincing enough for the villains.

“Why are they here? You promised!”

“I’ve kept your secret _and_ my promise. Now, _you_ keep yours.”

Miss Martian withdrew, and Queen Bee nodded.

“Good girl.”

“Give me more shields, and I’m in too.” said Superboy, but Lex strode up to him, smirking when they were face-to face.

“My boy…you’re a terrible liar.”

Superboy posed to attack, and immediately Lex barked out the words: “Red Sun.” and the young hero stilled instantly.

“What do you want us to do?” asked Artemis.

But just as Lex was about to give the command to Sportsmaster, crackling laughter sounded all around the forest.

“Sorry kiddies, just a little late to the party.” screeched Klarion in his cringe-worthy voice, stepping out from a red portal.

“Klarion. I was told you were busy with your master.”

Klarion waved Lex Luthor off dismissively, who didn’t looked pleased that he was being told off by a demon supernatural being.

“Yeah yeah, but this concerns the junior Justice League babies. You see _I_ was the one who planted the mole in. Aren’t you proud?”

Artemis and M’gann’s eyes widened, while Superboy barely managed to contain his shock and rage.

_This_ wasn’t a part of the plan.

The shadows merged, and out stepped a dark figure, hood over his head and black daggers in hand.

“Ghost King?” exclaimed both Artemis and M’gann at the same time, genuine shock evident.

“Ah yes, a self-proclaimed ‘King of Ghosts’, and I found him all by myself. Aren’t you all envious?”

The creepiest part? Lex Luthor actually _did_ look like he wanted to kidnap Nico for himself to use as a spy.

_Mortals are fucking crazy_!

“ _What the hell, Ghost King? He was the mole? He was barely with us for a day! How…?”_

_“He must’ve hacked into our systems when we weren’t looking.”_

Nico rolled his eyes with a inward groan. He didn’t end up telling them, choosing against it. If they were going to Santa Prisca anyways, he figured he might as well try his luck in killing Klarion before the Witch Boy would even try to tell anyone.

“ _I think you guys are forgetting the fact that I’m in on this conversation too,”_

Superboy and Artemis fell silent at that.

“ _And also, I don’t even know how to turn on a normal PC, you really think I can hack into your probably super secure computer?”_

Still silence, and Nico was beginning to think Miss Martian just left his out of the mental chat-room when he heard Aqualad’s voice.

“ _How do we know you’re not the mole?_ ”

“ _Just kill Klarion at the first chance you get, more like his cat, and I’ll owe you for the rest of my life.”_

_“We don’t kill.”_ said Robin flatly from a distance, sounding pissed.

It wasn’t like killing did any good these days anyway, with rumours that the Doors of Death have been broken open. He just needed Klarion in the Underworld long enough for him to throw his arse down to Tartarus, and then he would be on his way.

“ _If you’re really not the mole, than just stay out of our way._ ” grated Superboy, and that was when Artemus made her move.

Before long, everyone had found a foe to face; Artemis against her family, Miss Martian against the soldiers while Superboy faced off Dr. Desmond. And that was before the rest of the team arrived, but Nico had no mind for that.

He raised his sword against Klarion, unknowingly creating fissures on the ground and summoning random bits of bones from the dirt as his rage mounted.

“I’ve killed you before, and I’ll do it again.”

“So I take it you trusted your little team enough to tell them your ultimate secret? Disappointing, you’ve doomed yourself.”

Nico made a lash for Klarion, but the Witch Boy send a crackling of red energy from his fingertips, hitting the sword like a parry.

“You’ve taken the fun out of this now. Urgh, now I have to go do boring stuff with Vandal stupid Savage, all thanks to you.”

Another energy-parry, and Nico growled, about to unleash hell on a rage to kill Klarion when a roar sounded from the forest.

“That’s my cue. Until next time, and I must say, breaking out of your mortal Underworld was much more fun than I thought.”

He was gone before Nico could even maim him, and the demigod wanted to scream in frustration, until he heard something big…and loud charging through the forest. By then, most of the enemies were down, with Lex Luthor getting away on his helicopter with Queen Bee.

“What is _that_?”

“Minotaur.” said Nico with a sigh. Great. It wasn’t like he didn’t already have fifty billions things on his shoulders already.

“Like from the myths?” exclaimed Robin.

“If only.”

The monster came into view, making a bee-line straight to Nico.

“So I take it you still smell Percy on me? Even after not being at Camp for three months?”

Nico leapt out of the way just as the Minotaur was about to slam into him, causing it to ram its head straight into a tree instead. The Minotaur wore the tattered remains of the leather garments he wore during the battle of Manhattan, and his axe was nowhere to be seen. His horns had grown back, however, and he looked like he was in a fresh rage.

“My arrows aren’t working!” yelled Artemis, while Superboy charged at it, but even the strength of a half-alien super human was no match for the power of a beast from the myths, no matter how small-minded the monster was. Nico still felt rage from his encounter with Klarion, and he felt as angry as the Minotaur. He ignored the Team’s futile attempts to stop it, instead, slamming his foot to the ground and raised a fist.

“ _Serve me_.”

The earth rumbled, and out climbed ten skeletal warriors of different ages.

“ _Kill the Minotaur_.”

The warriors didn’t wound, but certainly distracted the beast for Nico to have an opening. Raising his sword, Nico was about to land the killing blow when he felt a hand on his arm, restraining him.

“We don’t kill.”

“Fuck off.”

The hesitation was enough to give the Minotaur a chance to fling his arms out, sending three warriors flying through the air. Nico threw a dagger towards its head, and it landed in the monster’s eye, causing it to bellow in pain. It began to swing his fists blindly around. M’gann was about to duck from an incoming swing, when a skeletal warrior collapsed at her side, distracting her for just a moment.

“M’gann!” yelled Superboy, but Nico was faster.

Without thinking, he shadow-travelling in front of her, just in him to catch the blow that flung him through the air. He slammed into a tree, his side taking the impact. A crack was heard, and he rolled to his back in pain. At the sound of heavy footsteps, the Minotaur was charging at him again, barely metres away, but Nico had lost his sword. Frantically looking around, he could not see it, and the Minotaur was approaching fast. Nico gritted his teeth, pressed his hand to the tree and was gathering the last of his strength to shadow-travel away, when the monster froze and suddenly burst into golden dust.

Bewildered, Nico stared at the killer in shock. Robin stood where the beast had died, in his hand was Nico’s sword, but the Boy Wonder had dropped it as his glove began to fizz. It was not a sword for mortals, after all.

“T-thank you.”

For once in his life, Nico was genuinely grateful for a mortal there to save his life.

* * *

 

After being bandaged up and eating a square of ambrosia, Nico sat in the rec room in the cave, with the rest of the Team as they were staying there for New Year’s.

“Thank you…for saving M’gann. You don’t know how much that means to me.” said Superboy, breaking the silence.

“That’s why we’re called heroes, I guess.” Was his reply, though it was distracted.

The Son of Hades was still mulling over the fact that death was missing, and was thinking of all the places Thanatos could possibly be.

“Why were you in Santa Prisca with Klarion? I saw you getting on the bio-ship beforehand.”

“I got the memo too, and I’d thought if everyone was going to trick their black-mailer, I may as well.”

Robin raised a brow from behind his sunglasses.

“Black mail?”

Here goes nothing…or the entire existence of the gods. Nico took a deep breath.

“He knew my...um…true identity.”

Despite the hour, the Team all looked at him in rapt attention.

“I hope you guys actually keep each other’s secrets, because if you don’t keep this you’re all going to be condemned to the deepest pits of Tartarus.” “Tartarus…wait…you speak like you know the Greek myths are true…are you—”

“My name is Nico di Angelo.” said Nico, glaring at Robin to shut him up.

“The last surviving Son of Hades, God of the Underworld.”

Shocked silence followed, and Nico fidgeted nervously. Maybe he _shouldn’t_ have taken Wonder Woman’s advice to gamble his existence with this Team.

“So you’re like, half god?”

Nico nodded, and Kid Flash exhaled a loud breath.

“I’m actually not finding this hard to believe, considering the things you’ve done.”

“Are you like the _only_ one, or…”

“There hundreds of half-bloods, the gods are always busy, you know. I just happen to be the only son of Hades alive right now.”

More silence.

“It’s getting late, I think I need a while to process this.”

The others agreed, and for once, Nico didn’t dread going to sleep – only the waking up part. He dreaded their reaction when the information finally sunk in.

* * *

 

“Morning.”

Nico looked up to see Robin saunter into the kitchen. Awkward silence followed, before Robin finally broke it with a sigh.

“Look, I…” he trailed off, unsure of how to formulate his thoughts into sentences properly.

“No matter who your parents were, or are, it doesn’t define you,”

Nico looked down, fingers drumming against the table.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“No? I’ll be honest; I probably won’t know what it feels like to be half god. But I assure you, the people on this Team are good. Artemis’ parents and sister are cons; Miss Martian just happened to be born from the aggressive and scorned Martian species. Superboy? He’s a clone, grown in a test-tube within six weeks with the DNA of Superman and a lunatic. We understand you more than you think, Nico.”

But the half-blood turned away.

“You don’t understand what it’s like to be a Son of _Hades_.” he muttered, but Robin heard him over the silence of the room.

“What it’s like at Camp. Yeah, I may’ve convinced my dad to help out in the war, but a week later and even the Ares kids avoid you. Some newbies even scream at the sight of you. You know how that feels?” grated Nico as he turned with a glare, and Robin decided not to ask about what the war was, or the camp Nico spoke of.

“And what did I do to you people? Everyone’s always on my arse, either trying to exploit my secrets or some shit like that,”

The Son of Hades sat down on the couch with a sigh, looking almost…weary, like he was sick of everything.

“Look, I appreciate the offer Dick, but I really don’t think you guys need an emo kid on your team—”

But Robin silenced him with a hand.

“Hey now, I know I was a jackass before. I’m sorry, all right? But you don’t have to go self-bashing all the time, that’s Superboy’s job. You’ve earned your place on the Team when you took that poisoned dagger. Whether you like it or not, you’re always welcome here.”

For the first time in his life, Nico felt…touched.

“Thank you.” he murmured after a while.

Maybe Wonder Woman _was_ right…maybe this team was where he would actually be accepted…maybe—

“Robin! Ni—”

“Ghost King.” corrected Nico before Aqualad could continue.

“Ghost King, I apologise. There seems to be a problem with the security system.”

“I’ll go check it out.” said Robin, heading towards the corridor.

“Remember what I said, Nico.”

“What’s going on?” said Artemis, staring at the screen in concern as the Team gathered around the hologram screen.

“Batman over-rode the security codes an hour ago, but I don’t know why—”

_Warning: Unknown energy signature approaching. Attempting to block user…_

The mono-toned voice of the cave echoed throughout the mountain, and Nico stepped in just in time to see the all the shadows flying into a corner of the room. He’d seen that before, many times.

“What the—”

Suddenly, a huge dog the size of a truck lunged out of the shadow, and the Team had their respective weapons up, Superboy posed to attack when Nico stopped them.

“Wait!”

At the sound of his voice, Mrs. O’ Leary let out a ground-vibrating bark and slammed into him, and Nico was sure she’d re-broken his three mending ribs from yesterday.

“Ugh…hey girl…” he groaned as the hellhound bathed him in drool.

“Come on girl, please get off Nico, we don’t have much time.”

He knew that voice…

“Annabeth?”

Nico was shocked, and it wasn’t because of her sudden appearance within the Team’s supposedly top-secret hide-out, nonetheless. It was that fact that Annabeth no longer looked as…perfect as she used to. Her ponytail was messy, grey eyes tired and orange shirt crinkled.

Alarm bells rang inside Nico’s head, and suddenly his stomach felt sick with worry.

“What happened?”

Annabeth didn’t even care to acknowledge the band of young superheroes next to her.

“Percy…”

Nico’s eyes widened as he felt the world spin around him.

“ _What. Happened. To. Percy?_ ”

“He’s…he’s gone missing. We haven’t seen him since yesterday. We thought he just went to visit his mum, but we looked everywhere and couldn’t find him.”

“I’ll help.” said Nico without hesitation.

No matter how much he hated most of the other half-bloods, his family matters was always a priority.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Robin cut in.

Annabeth hesitated, and Nico waved her on impatiently.

“They know.”

She bit her lip, but at Nico’s nod she turned and began to climb on Mrs. O’Leary’s back yet again.

“Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. I’d love to say I’m pleased to meet you but right now is not a good time. Sorry Nico, can’t wait, I really need to get going and I’ve still got to get Tyson and Grover.”

Annabeth patted Mrs. O’Leary lightly, urging her to find Grover, but the hellhound whined and dropped to the ground. “Please, girl. I really need to find the satyr, come on.” Wordlessly, Nico pulled out a few pomegranate seeds and fed them to the tired hellhound. Immediately, she brightened, and she and Annabeth were gone within moments.

“Er...you planning to go as well?”

“Family thing, sorry.”

“Are you going to come back?” asked M’gann, as the Team watched him disappear and re-appear with his knives and robe.

“I…”

“You’ll always have a place on this team, GK.” said Robin, and that was when Nico noticed that it wasn’t a judgmental glint that shone in each of his new teammates’ eyes, but rather, empathy.

It was like they knew how important this was to him.

“I’ll come back, when all this is sorted out.”

And when he spoke the words, he knew they were true.

“I swear on the River Styx.”

Then Nico di Angelo was gone within a blink of an eye, leaving no evidence behind except for just the faint sound of thunder rumbling in the distance.

**_To be continued…_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this story! I hope you enjoyed it :) Sequel will be posted soon.


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